A distressing audio recording was played on Thursday in the trial of the triple murder in an apartment building in the Augsburg district. The four shots fired at the three people within just 16 seconds, screams and the events before and after at the crime scene in Langweid am Lech were accidentally recorded by one of the victims. The man had probably accidentally activated a video recording and put his cell phone in his pocket. Even though no picture can be seen, the police had a rare piece of evidence in such cases.
The accused 65-year-old German watched the horrific audio recording being played with little emotion, just as he had often previously participated in the trial before the Augsburg Regional Court without showing any emotion. The accused sports shooter, who legally owned several weapons, claims to have a complete memory gap for the time of the crime.
According to the indictment, in July 2023, after a long neighborhood dispute, he virtually executed a 49- and 52-year-old couple with shots to the head in the shared stairwell. He is then said to have killed a 72-year-old neighbor with a shot to the head through her apartment door and injured two of the pensioner’s relatives in another house, also with shots through a door.
The audio recording shows the neighbor walking up the stairs to his apartment, unlocking the door, and then the first shot being fired. According to the investigation, the perpetrator killed the man from behind without warning. The wife, who was walking just a few meters behind her partner, began to scream and was also killed within a very short time with two shots to the skull. The perpetrator then shot through the door of another neighboring apartment one floor below, at the level of the peephole. The 72-year-old, who was standing behind the apartment door because of the shots, died within minutes.
After the perpetrator had fled, the defendant’s wife came home a short time later, found the bodies and met the 72-year-old’s husband, who had called the police emergency number to get help. “For God’s sake” and “I’m going crazy,” the woman said over and over again in this situation.
“What is your husband doing? Where did he get the gun?” asked the neighbor. The woman replied that her husband was a sports shooter. Five more days of hearings are planned for the trial. The verdict could be announced at the end of July.