Oberhausen
17-year-old Ukrainian basketball player stabbed – police arrest three more teenagers
The police are checking whether the Oberhausen suspects are responsible for further crimes (symbolic image)
© Marijan Murat / DPA
The suspects are only 14 and 15 years old: After the fatal knife attack on a 17-year-old in Oberhausen, the police arrested three more young people. They may have committed violent acts on a regular basis.
After the violent death of a 17-year-old in an argument in Oberhausen police arrested three more young people. The homicide squad executed the arrest warrants on Friday morning, the police and prosecutors said. The suspects are a 14-year-old from Herne and two 14- and 15-year-olds from Gelsenkirchen. All of them are being investigated for, among other things, the joint murder of the 17-year-old.
Dispute at Oberhausen main station escalates
The main suspect is still a 15-year-old from Gelsenkirchen who has been in custody for days. According to the current investigation, he is said to have stabbed the victim and killed her, said a police spokesman.
The 17-year-old was stabbed last Saturday during an altercation at Oberhausen Central Station. Three other teenagers survived with serious injuries. The 17-year-old was considered a great talent in Ukrainian basketball. The basketball club ART Giants Düsseldorf, where the teenager last played, wrote that the young athlete had fled his homeland because of the war.
The motives for the crime are still under investigation, said the police spokesman. The investigators had previously announced that there was “no concrete evidence of a xenophobic act.” Rather, it is being checked whether the suspected perpetrators have often used the same trick, for example in robberies, the spokesman said on Friday. There are indications that the group had not acted “in this way” for the first time. This time the situation escalated so much that one victim died.
According to investigators, there are “a large number of witnesses” to the crime. Video recordings were also secured. According to the murder squad, the young people had already had a verbal altercation on a bus on the way to downtown Oberhausen. When those involved got off the bus at the main train station, the argument escalated.