What happened?
On Monday afternoon, an armed gunman stormed lecture hall 360 at the University of Heidelberg. A tutorial is currently running, it’s about organic chemistry, thirty students of biology are sitting here. The 18-year-old shoots at least three times with a shotgun. Aimless, but with the intention of killing, as a police spokesman later says.
The young man shoots a young woman in the head and injures three other people. The student dies later, as does the shooter. After his crime, he flees the building with his backpack and kills himself in the botanical garden on the outskirts of the campus at Neuenheimer Feld.
What do you know about the perpetrator and his motive?
The 18-year-old German was enrolled as a biology student at the University of Heidelberg and lived in Mannheim. His motive is a mystery for now. It can only be speculated, said the head of the public prosecutor’s office in Heidelberg, Andreas Herrgen, at a press conference on Monday evening. The man was not known to the police and did not have a driver’s license, says Mannheim police chief Siegfried Kollmar. There is talk of a previous mental illness, but the young man was considered healthy. The police write on Twitter, there is no indication of an act of terrorism. Religion is in case rather irrelevant.
In the evening, at a press conference, politicians and authorities provide information about the killing spree at Heidelberg University.
(Photo: Sebastian Gollnow/dpa)
Before the crime, the 18-year-old sent a Whatsapp message to his father. It says “people need to be punished now”. The police now want to examine the perpetrator’s environment “at high pressure”. The laptop and other electronic devices that were confiscated during the search of the Mannheim apartment would have to be evaluated, writes the Rhein-Neckar-Zeitung. The 29 surviving eyewitnesses who were in the lecture hall at the time of the crime are to be questioned again.
Your fellow student apparently assumed that he would die in his act. He also wrote to his father that he did not want to be buried in a cemetery, but rather a burial at sea.
What is known about the murder weapon?
A few days before his attack, the 18-year-old is said to have personally and illegally bought a shotgun and a repeating weapon abroad. He had proof of purchase and more than 100 rounds of ammunition in his backpack. He only used the shotgun in his act. It is not yet known why he did not reload or switched weapons before fleeing. Did the perpetrator want to meet a specific person? The police have yet to find out.
Police officers examine a weapon on the premises of Heidelberg University.
(Photo: Sebastian Gollnow/dpa)
Neither his parents nor himself had a gun ownership card or a gun license. There could also be criminal consequences for the seller. The police did not make the name public for investigative tactical reasons, they want to pay him a visit in the next few days.
How did the police act?
At 12:24 p.m., officials received seven emergency calls within 43 seconds. This makes it clear to the police that these are not fake calls, but a “serious situation”, as it is later called. Six minutes later, at 12:30 p.m., the first three patrol cars are on site. Later there will be 400 emergency services. At 12:43, armed officers reach the lecture hall, at 12:51 the perpetrator is found dead in the botanical garden. The police union later praised the quick arrival of the emergency services.
However, it took a while before the police approached the corpse: the young man had a backpack with previously unknown contents, investigators fear it contains explosives. Press photos show police officers and explosives experts securing the beige backpack outdoors.
At this point, the university campus has long been cordoned off, red and white barrier tape delimits the scene of the crime, and the police control the access roads. A police helicopter circles in the air over Neuenheimer Feld. Around 1:30 p.m., dozens of emergency services gathered in front of the old surgery. They wear camouflage clothing, weapons, helmets and bulletproof vests, the reports Rhein-Neckar-Zeitung. The situation is under control, they say. Nevertheless, the labyrinthine terrain is searched by a special squad. At around 3.15 p.m. the all-clear came: the man was a lone perpetrator and there was no longer a danger.
Who are the victims?
Like the perpetrator, the victims are biology students. 30 people are present at the attack. A 19- and a 20-year-old woman were slightly injured by the gunshots. Also a 20 year old man. A student, 23, died in the afternoon after being shot in the head.
A woman and a man lay flowers on the railings of the University of Heidelberg.
(Photo: R.Priebe/dpa)
“When a young person leaves the house in the morning to do something for his future,” is how police chief Kollmar puts it, “and then it comes to an abrupt end and life is over: then the tragedy cannot be surpassed. ” The deed will reverberate for a long time, my investigators. “There was panic,” says Kollmar. “The students were scared to death.” Interior Minister Strobl promises help and appeals to all those affected: “Please don’t be afraid to take advantage of these offers of help.”
What’s next in Heidelberg?
The student body was stunned after the fact. “We are infinitely shocked. This is a catastrophe that eludes everything conceivable between lectures, exams and university life,” said Chairman Peter Abelmann. The University of Heidelberg is preparing a funeral service and wants to deal with the crime internally. The university president, Bernhard Eitel, received expressions of condolence from scientists from all over Europe offering help throughout Monday. The attack on the students is also an attack on the openness of the universities.
“I’m not just talking about being affected in the sense of feeling sympathy for the relatives and those who were there, but this is also an affection that has a retroactive effect on the university as a whole,” says Eitel in the Rhein-Neckar-Zeitung quoted. He gave the Dean of the Faculty of Biological Sciences the option to cancel the courses for this Tuesday. The lecture hall will remain closed for the time being, but the rest of the university wants to continue.
Heidelberg’s Lord Mayor Eckart Würzner (independent) expressed his condolences to the victims and their families. “Not only were we stunned, we actually can’t believe that something like this is happening here in Heidelberg.” Pastors are available in St. Peter’s Church. The victims are to be commemorated here next Monday in another funeral service, which will be broadcast via live stream. At 12:24 p.m. – exactly one week after the emergency calls were received by the police – university life should also stand still for a minute’s silence.