Suddenly screams, rumbling, crashing: tumultuous scenes take place in front of courtroom A 126 in the Munich Criminal Justice Center. Several people push a man into the corner of the hallway and beat him. A police sergeant advises passers-by to leave now.
After a court hearing on Tuesday afternoon, two feuding families clashed in the hallway. A good two dozen security guards tried for minutes to stop the fight. The corridor was then closed, police cars stood in front of the entrances to the court, and a hundred patrolled the building because one of the large families had announced that they would call for “reinforcement”.
The starting point for the escalation was apparently a court hearing against three men who were charged with grievous bodily harm in the district court. One of them is 65-year-old Longino A. He is said to have ambushed his daughter’s ex-partner along with three other men in August 2021. When he drove up in his car to pick up their children as agreed, the men are said to have pulled him out of the car and beat him.
Longino A. is said to have held a blade-like object in his hand and used it to attack the victim’s neck and face. In addition, the words “I’ll kill you. Now I’ll kill you. Now you die” are said to have been spoken in Romani. According to court press spokesman Martin Swoboda, the trial ended with two of the defendants having to pay a perpetrator-victim settlement totaling 3,000 euros. Longino A. was sentenced to a suspended sentence of one year and three months.
But after the verdict, the feuding families met in the hallway. Now the relatives of the injured party are said to have hit the main defendant Longino A. For minutes, all you can hear is sharp female screams and banging. The meeting in the neighboring hall is interrupted because there are no longer any judicial officers available to present imprisoned witnesses: around 30 judicial sergeants have secured the corridors and surrounded family members who are running away. A doctor treats the injured man, who sits in a chair with a bloody bandage on his head. The folding chair across from him was ripped out.
It takes hours until the first witnesses are interviewed by the police on site. Senior public prosecutor Hans Kornprobst, head of the Munich public prosecutor’s office, also witnesses the brawl. You can hear over the radio that the police will send reinforcements to secure the entrance to the criminal justice center and the public prosecutor’s office on neighboring Linprunstrasse. One of the family clans apparently contacted other family members over the phone.
They actually arrive in front of the criminal justice center, and again there are arguments at the entrance. According to police spokesman Michael Marienwald, twelve police patrols are on duty to ensure security in front of and inside the building.
The court corridor in front of Hall A 126 was still closed in the early evening hours “to preserve evidence.” Longino A. was taken to a clinic, “it is not yet possible to say how seriously he is injured,” said Marienwald. Four men were taken into custody. In any case, in court you can be prepared that the two families will meet again in the near future.