Lower Saxony
Did one soldier kill four people? The processing is underway
Candles in front of a house in Brockel where a man is said to have shot two people. photo
© Focke Strangmann/dpa
On Friday night, shots were fired in two communities in Lower Saxony. Four people are dead, including a child. The investigators suspect a Bundeswehr soldier.
After the fatal shootings of four people in two communities between Hamburg and Bremen are continuing to investigate the case. On Friday, a judge issued an arrest warrant against the accused and the 32-year-old Bundeswehr soldier was taken to prison. It is not yet known whether he has commented.
According to investigators’ current findings, the soldier is said to have initially killed two people in a single-family home in Westervesede, a town in the municipality of Scheeßel: a 30-year-old man and a 55-year-old woman.
In Brockel, part of the Bothel municipality, the suspect is said to have shot a 33-year-old woman and a three-year-old child. Here too, the crime scene is a single-family home. Westervesede and Brockel are about six kilometers apart as the crow flies. The Verden public prosecutor confirmed the process.
Soldier apparently presented himself in barracks
On Friday morning, the German is said to have surrendered at the Von Düring barracks in the city of Rotenburg (Wümme). Rotenburg (Wümme) is close to the suspected crime scenes. The soldier drove to the barracks, got out of a car and identified himself. Police officers who were called arrested the man. According to police, the suspect is not believed to be a member of the barracks.
Investigators examined the car in front of the barracks. There was a Molotov cocktail in the driver’s door of the car, and there was ammunition in the trunk next to a Bundeswehr backpack.
Resident: Parents startled awake
A 22-year-old resident from Westervesede told the German Press Agency on Friday that his parents were startled awake at about half past three in the night when they heard shots. “When you hear something like that, you think it’s really far away,” said the man. “But then looking out the window when it’s two meters away from you – that’s of course a completely different feeling.”
The man’s armament and the background to the crime are not clear
It is unclear how many murder weapons the 32-year-old used. The origin of the weapon or weapons is also unknown. The Verden public prosecutor’s office and the Bundeswehr did not answer questions about this on Friday. According to dpa information, the Bundeswehr is not missing any weapons in this context. The Bundeswehr confirmed that the suspect is a soldier.
The soldier’s relationship to the victims is also unclear. The Verden public prosecutor’s office did not provide any information. The background to the crime remains unclear. “A motive in the family environment cannot be ruled out,” the investigators simply said.