The prosecutor’s office in charge of the case described the double crime as “execution”
A 39-year-old hunter has been sentenced this Wednesday to life imprisonment for the murder of two police officers who had discovered poaching in their vehicle. The sentence of the Kaiserslautern Court, which is not final and can be appealed, reflects the extreme seriousness of the case and establishes permanent imprisonment that cannot be reviewed before 20 years, which in crimes of this type generally leads to the admission of the convicted person for life. a high security prison. The senior prosecutor has stressed that the murder of the two agents was practically “an execution”.
The court has declared proven that Andreas S. killed a 29-year-old policeman and his 24-year-old patrol partner when they were carrying out a traffic control at dawn on January 31, in the open field and near the small town Kusel, in the western state of Rhineland-Palatinate. Shortly after the agents stopped his vehicle and discovered inside several pieces of big game poached that same night in the region, the defendant killed the agents with their hunting weapons.
According to the reconstruction of the events, Andreas S. fired at point blank range with a cartridge shotgun at the young police officer, who was finishing her pre-trial phase, and then with a rifle at her colleague. He then began to search the agent to make possible notes disappear that could lead to his identification and upon verifying that he was still alive, he finished her off with a shot. According to prosecutors, the murderer committed the double crime to cover up his poaching, but also out of greed, since the man feared that he would not be able to sell the slaughtered pieces in his butcher shop if they were seized.
In the vehicle he was driving there were apparently a total of 22 roe deer and deer that he had just hunted illegally. Another man who accompanied him, Florian V. and 33 years old, was found not guilty. Although he did participate in the poaching, he apparently had nothing to do with the murder of the agents and he collaborated decisively in clarifying the case by making a broad statement about what happened. The lawyers for the main defendant had rejected the murder charges and argued that it was a case of “serious injuries resulting in death.”
Andreas S. further stated during the trial that he had killed the 29-year-old officer in self-defense and accused his partner of being the murderer of the young police officer. His companion was initially investigated under murder charges, but the investigations carried out determined that all the shots were fired by the main defendant. The murder of the two agents caused a great commotion in Germany at the time and opened a debate about the safety of police officers when they are on duty.
In some internet forums the double crime was even celebrated by some people. This led the Rhineland-Palatinate Office of Criminal Investigation to open the ‘Hate Speech’ task force, which in a few days identified around 400 cases of hate speech against law enforcement officers. Several people are currently being prosecuted for those messages. A 55-year-old man who had called for policemen to be killed from behind has meanwhile been sentenced to 20 months in jail.
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