Two police officers were shot dead during a check on a country road near Kusel at the end of January. Investigators assume that the 38-year-old suspect shot so as not to be exposed as a poacher.
Because of fatal shots at two police officers in Rhineland-Palatinate at the end of January, the public prosecutor’s office has brought charges of murder against a 38-year-old man. This was announced by the judiciary in Kaiserslautern on Tuesday. A 24-year-old policewoman and a 29-year-old policeman were shot dead during a night-time vehicle check near Kusel. The case sparked national outrage.
Shortly after the crime, the 38-year-old German was taken into custody. The judiciary assumes that the man acted to cover up hunting poaching, the public prosecutor said. Initially, a now 33-year-old man was suspected of murder. The case against the man was dropped as far as the allegation of murder was concerned, it said. According to the investigation, the accused initially “surprisingly shot the shotgun at close range in the head” of the police officer, who fell severely injured and unconscious on the street. After that, the man is said to have shot the policeman several times with a hunting rifle and seriously injured him. The last shot hit the officer in the head and was fatal.
“When the 38-year-old then searched the police officer lying on the street for notes that compromised him, he noticed after the results of the investigation that she was still alive and fired another shot at her head with the shotgun,” said the public prosecutor’s office Palatinate town with. The prosecution accuses the man of attempted murder in conjunction with dangerous bodily harm and two other completed murders, in addition to resistance and physical assault on law enforcement officers.