Sindelfingen
Shots in the Mercedes factory – employees commemorate the victims
A minute’s silence is held for the victims at the Mercedes-Benz factory premises in Sindelfingen. photo
© Mercedes-Benz AG/dpa
The deadly shots at the Mercedes-Benz plant in Sindelfingen were several days ago. Thousands of employees have now thought of the two victims. One of the dead has since been buried.
Four days after the deadly shots were fired at the Mercedes-Benz plant in Sindelfingen, employees thought of the two victims. There was a minute’s silence at the plant early Monday afternoon. A company spokesman said later. Employees at other locations of the car manufacturer were also invited to pause at this point.
The spokesman assumed that almost the entire workforce at the plant took part in the minute’s silence. The tapes also stood still for the most part. CEO Ola Källenius and representatives of the logistics company Rhenus also took part in the commemoration. For the employees in the hall affected by the crime, there was also a separate commemoration and information event before the start of production. The company had stopped production there after the fact on Thursday up to and including Sunday.
A victim buried in Turkey
Meanwhile, according to the local Ditib community, one of the victims was buried. The coffin with the body was flown to Turkey with the family on Saturday, said a mosque spokesman. The funeral took place on Sunday afternoon. The body of the second victim should therefore be transferred to Turkey on Monday, and the burial is expected to take place on Tuesday. Around 1,000 people had already gathered at the mosque for a funeral prayer for the victims on Saturday.
The two 44-year-olds were shot and fatally injured in a Mercedes-Benz factory on Thursday morning. One died on the spot, the other a little later in the hospital. A 53-year-old Turk is suspected of the crime. Works security overpowered him shortly after the shots were fired. Police officers then arrested him without resistance. The alleged gunman is in custody on suspicion of double manslaughter. The case had attracted considerable attention, including in Turkey.
Perpetrator and victim knew each other
According to the investigators, the perpetrator and the victim worked for Rhenus and knew each other. How close the relationship between the men was is still open. The police still did not provide information on the nationality of the victims. The 53-year-old probably owned the murder weapon – a pistol – illegally. He didn’t have a gun license.
The background to the crime was still unclear at the beginning of the week. There are no new findings, said a police spokesman. The suspect had not yet commented. A spokesman for the public prosecutor’s office assumed that it would take some time to clarify the motive. That can only be reliably assessed once all the evidence has been viewed, he said. Nothing can be ruled out for this reason, not even a political background. An investigative group called “Halle” is currently working on the clarification of the fact.
With a history spanning more than a hundred years, the Mercedes-Benz plant in Sindelfingen near Stuttgart is the car manufacturer’s most traditional production site. Around 35,000 employees work there. In addition to the Mercedes E-Class, the S-Class and its electric counterpart EQS also roll off the assembly line in Sindelfingen.