IIn the case of the fatal shots at two police officers in the Palatinate, the judiciary is to decide on Tuesday whether the suspects may be held in custody. The 32 and 38-year-old Germans were arrested in Saarland on Monday. “The investigation will continue until it can be ruled out that there are other perpetrators,” said a police spokeswoman.
Investigators want to comment on the case at noon. Police and prosecutors announced a joint press conference in Kaiserslautern at 2:00 p.m. The Palatinate town is around 40 kilometers from a road in the district of Kusel. A 24-year-old police officer and a 29-year-old chief inspector were shot dead there early Monday morning during a traffic check. The two suspects were arrested on the same day.
The 29-year-old police officer’s name was Alexander K., he came from Freisen, which is only 15 kilometers away from Kusel. The amateur football club FC Freisen published a death notice for the police officer on its website. It says: “He will be with us in every cabin, in every game, on every field, because we will think of you every time (…), Alex!”
Hans-Günther Alles is the medical supervisor for FC Freisen’s first team, he said on the phone on Tuesday: “Alex played with us when we were youngsters, he was always courteous, always nice, always helpful.” In the first team he was a regular player in defense and also a very active member of the club off the field. “He always had an ear for his teammates and never said ‘no’,” said the 71-year-old supervisor. Alexander K.’s parents and his sister were also regularly on the sports field on Sundays.
“He has an arsenal of weapons”
On Monday, the 38-year-old Saarlander Andreas S. first turned himself in after she had publicly searched for him with his name and photo. The suspect reported through his lawyer and was arrested in front of a house in Sulzbach, Saarland. Weapons were also found in the home during a search.
A 32-year-old suspect was also arrested at the home. The investigation should reveal what connection he had to the shots, it said. Both men initially did not comment on the matter, the police said. The search measures would have lasted during the night because other accomplices could not be ruled out, it said. Despite the two arrests, many questions remain unanswered.
The suspect S. comes from Spiesen-Elversberg in Saarland, he is said to have run a bakery and a game trade, among other things. According to the “Saarbrücker Zeitung”, there were warnings in 2019 in a dispute about the payment of wages to his employees that S. owned weapons. The newspaper writes that trade unionists had warned of outbreaks of violence and said: “He has an arsenal of weapons.” However, the warnings were not verifiable.
According to media reports, S. did not have a valid gun license. The German Hunting Association said it had been deprived of its “reliability under firearms law” twice – most recently in 2020. It is unclear why – the association did not initially respond to a request.
“Very, very intensive interrogation”
The Rhineland-Palatinate Interior Minister Roger Lewentz had announced a “very, very intensive interrogation” of the suspects. “We want to know everything that happened there,” the SPD politician told SWR on Monday evening. Investigations and surveys would show whether there were other suspects. “At the moment we are assuming that the two of them we were able to arrest in the building.” There is an allegation that the two men “very, very brutally took the lives of two police officers”. “The public prosecutor’s office must make the specific assessment.”
He doesn’t think that the police will have to adjust completely differently to traffic controls in the future, said Lewentz. “The two emergency services wore protective equipment and approached cautiously. The police do not normally experience what happened there with all the brutality during the controls.” Such a terrible event is the exception. In general, however, there was more aggression against emergency services, said Lewentz. “This is a task for society as a whole and not just a question for the police. These women and men are there for all of us.”
The President of the Federal Criminal Police Office (BKA), Holger Münch, told the editorial network Germany (RND/Tuesday) that his house would provide “its full support” in clarifying the facts. “It is incomprehensible when police officers become the target of attacks and lose their lives while fulfilling their task of protecting the population from danger.”
According to information from security circles, the two officers had reported by radio: “They are shooting”. The policeman is said to have fired several more shots at the crime scene – it was still unclear whether they were warning shots or the officer injured a suspect. His colleague’s weapon was obviously not used. While the young woman, who was still studying at the Police University, died immediately, according to the police, her colleague was initially still alive. But he died when paramedics arrived.
According to dpa information, the police found the suspect’s papers at the crime scene. According to information from security circles, the man had noticed the police in the past because of an escape from an accident. A police spokesman called it a “rumour”. according to Deutsche Welle Reports say the two police officers found dead deer in the vehicle they checked before the shots were fired.
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