Jehovah’s Witnesses killing spree
The public prosecutor’s office has decided not to bring charges against members of the shooting club
Flowers and candles stand in front of the entrance area of a Jehovah’s Witnesses community center in Hamburg, where a gunman killed several people
© Christian Charisius / DPA
At the beginning of March 2023, a shooting spree in a Jehovah’s Witnesses church shocked the city of Hamburg. Eight people died at that time. Now the Attorney General’s Office is dropping the investigation.
Almost a year after the shooting spree in a Jehovah’s Witnesses church with eight deaths In Hamburg, the public prosecutor’s office has ended its investigation against three members of a shooting club due to minor guilt. The authorities in the Hanseatic city said that the allegations against them in connection with a so-called expertise test of the later perpetrator of the shooting, Philipp F., were not serious enough.
Conviction is by no means certain
Among other things, due to inaccurate and sometimes contradictory legal and official requirements regarding the exact procedure of the expertise test, it is questionable whether the three accused were even able to recognize any legal misconduct of their own, explained the public prosecutor’s office.
Even in the event of a conviction that is by no means certain, only a “rather below-average fine” can be expected, the authority continued. Furthermore, the men had no criminal record and were “mostly cooperative.” There is no public interest in criminal prosecution and the investigation will be discontinued without charges being brought.
F.’s unusual behavior was not reported correctly
On March 9, 2023, F. shot seven people and then himself in a Jehovah’s Witnesses church in Hamburg. He had previously been a member of the religious community himself. He legally owned the pistol used in the rampage because of his membership in the shooting club.
After the crime, suspected irregularities were discovered around the club and the Hamburg weapons authority. An employee of the authority from the association’s ranks received information about suspicious behavior on the part of F. without properly passing it on and thus possibly enabling the later murder weapon to be confiscated. The man is being investigated on suspicion of negligent homicide and bodily harm.
The investigation against the three members of the shooting club, which has now been discontinued, related to the so-called proficiency test that F. had to take in order to legally gain possession of his pistol. Among other things, he was allowed to repeat parts of the practical shooting test, and the test procedure was only officially documented incompletely.