Rhineland-Palatinate
Man kills father, wife and child in Montabaur
The SEK is discussing preparations for access in Montabaur. photo
© Sascha Ditscher/dpa
An area in Montabaur in Rhineland-Palatinate was cordoned off for hours. Then the news: three bodies were found in a house, the suspected perpetrator is brain dead.
Around the house on a side street in Rhineland-Palatinate There is an almost calm atmosphere in Montabaur on Thursday. But police officers in white suits and face masks keep running up and down the small staircase to the front door. A violent act took place inside the house this Thursday: According to the public prosecutor’s office, a 37-year-old man is said to have killed his father, his wife and their son. According to dpa information, investigators assume that the victims were shot.
“According to current knowledge, the background to the crime was probably family disputes. The perpetrator and victim lived in the same property,” said the prosecution in Koblenz. The public prosecutor spoke of intentional killing of the 68-year-old father, the 39-year-old woman and their three-year-old son.
The judiciary is conducting an investigation against the German national on strong suspicion of manslaughter in three cases, it was said. According to the investigation, the suspected perpetrator is said to have shot himself in the head. He was taken to hospital with serious injuries – but according to the public prosecutor’s office, he was later diagnosed as brain dead.
Called my partner after the crime
According to the public prosecutor’s office, shortly after the crime, the alleged perpetrator called his partner. “According to current information, the accused told his partner by telephone shortly after the crime that he had killed three people,” it said. “They then alerted the police.” Accordingly, the crime occurred early Thursday morning. After the police arrived, the armed suspect initially barricaded himself at the crime scene.
The first news of a threat situation had already reached the public that morning. The police reported a person in a psychological state of emergency. In order to exclude possible dangers for residents, passers-by and employees of surrounding companies, a large area in the city in the north of Rhineland-Palatinate was cordoned off and evacuated. Numerous rescue and police forces were on site.
According to their own statements, the police negotiated with the man and the attack took place on Thursday afternoon. After entering the building, the police found the three bodies.
The barriers were also noticed by two schoolgirls who passed the crime scene on their way home in the afternoon. One of the two reported that they had to take a detour around the cordoned off area that morning. They then followed the news at school. “We didn’t think that such a blatant thing would happen.” It is very sad what happened.
“It’s terrible”
A resident reported that she wanted to go for a walk with her dog in the morning and was not let out by the police. “A lot of ambulances up here, police cars, then armed police with balaclavas,” she described the situation. A young woman who works in the neighborhood was unable to get to her workplace because of the violence and was shocked. “It’s terrible. You wouldn’t even expect something like this to happen.”
In the afternoon, a few hours after the bodies were found, the police reduced the cordoned off area. Passers-by could now see the forensics employees coming and going. “At the moment, the focus is on securing traces and evidence at the crime scene by officers from the Koblenz Criminal Directorate in order to be able to reconstruct the course of the crime as accurately as possible,” said senior public prosecutor Mario Mannweiler. “There is currently no evidence that other people were involved in the crime.” The investigation will therefore take some time.