Rhineland-Palatinate
Montabaur: Killing of family – perpetrator fired with three weapons
The property is marked with police tape one day after a violent act that left several people dead (archive photo). photo
© Sascha Ditscher/dpa
The crime caused horror at the beginning of the year: a man shot three family members, including a child. Now the investigation is over. What was the man’s motive?
Around two months after a man left his family in Rhineland-Palatinate After Montabaur was shot, investigators have released new details. As the Koblenz public prosecutor announced, the perpetrator initially fired three firearms at his victims. A few minutes later he finished his actions with several targeted shots.
The 37-year-old German citizen shot three family members at the end of January. At the time, the public prosecutor spoke of the intentional killing of the 68-year-old father, the 39-year-old woman and their three-year-old son. The man then shot himself.
“The investigations carried out have not yielded any indications of anyone else involved,” the authority said on Monday. “It can be assumed that the accused acted as a lone perpetrator.” The public prosecutor’s office has now stopped the investigation.
“Family and financial disputes”
The crimes were triggered by “significant and long-lasting family and financial disputes between the perpetrator and the victims.” There were therefore threats and physical confrontations and thus police operations a few weeks before the crime. However, no unauthorized weapons or concrete evidence of an impending act of violence were found, the public prosecutor wrote.
Two of the weapons used in the crime had previously belonged to the perpetrator’s grandfather, it was said. He legally owned them until his death – but after that they were reported lost. According to the public prosecutor’s office, the origin of the third weapon could not be clarified.