Fatal shots in Kusel: man in custody after being called to kill the police

In Kusel, a police officer and her colleague are shot dead. After the fact, a man calls for cop hunting on social networks. He is now in custody.

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Update from Wednesday, February 9th, 2022, 3:19 p.m .: The Koblenz district court has issued an arrest warrant against a man who is said to have called for the murder of police officers on social networks after the double murder of two police officers in Rhineland-Palatinate. He is in custody about a week after the call, as the Koblenz public prosecutor announced on Wednesday (February 9th, 2022).

The 55-year-old from the Idar-Oberstein area is said to have called for so-called cop-hunting in videos on Facebook last Thursday (03.02.2022). The background was the double murder of the police officers in the Kusel district. A 24-year-old and her 29-year-old colleague were shot dead early Monday morning (01/31/2022) during a traffic check.

The 55-year-old is said to have taken this act as an opportunity to upload the videos. In it he claimed that he could lure police officers into an adjacent forest for a fee of 500 euros. Interested parties could then shoot the officials there. The 55-year-old then filmed high seats in a camera pan, which are suitable as a hiding place for shooters. For “a hit between the eyes” he is said to have promised prize money of 500 euros.

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Deadly shots at the Kusel police – head of the hunting association: “Not hunters, but criminals”

+++ 9:37 p.m .: The head of the state hunting association, Dieter Mahr, is concerned about the death of two police forces in Rhineland-Palatinate. A police officer and a police officer were killed by gunfire during a stop. The two suspects who have since been arrested are said to have also poached. The officers are suspected to have been shot to cover up illegal poaching.

Head of the State Hunting Association about poaching: They are not hunters, but criminals

In an interview with Focus Online on Friday (February 4th, 2022), the head of the state hunting association was shocked by the crime. Dieter Mahr reports on rules that hunters are subject to. Poachers, on the other hand, did not obey these laws. They are not hunters, but criminals, according to Mahr. “His concern is simply to kill as much game as possible. He does not act as a huntsman, but as a criminal. It really has nothing to do with hunting anymore,” said Mahr about the suspect Andreas S.

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Fatal shots at police Kusel: Gunpoint controls are not a solution

+++ 1.35 p.m .: In Rhineland-Palatinate, two police officers were killed by shots. After the deputy of the police union GdP, Jörg Radek, called for a rethinking in society, Herbert Reul (CDU) now made a similar statement. Reul is the interior minister of North Rhine-Westphalia and calls for more support for the police.

“What we need is a clear commitment to the police and trust in the police,” wrote Reul in a guest article in the newspaper Welt am Sonntag. This includes not presenting every misconduct by individual civil servants as “symptomatic for the entire profession”. Reul does not want to downplay or conceal problems within the police force, but rather to reorient the debate.

“Rapidly breaking the baton of people who put their professional lives in the service of the community with a moral Herrenreiter attitude is definitely the wrong way to go,” continued Reul.

Jörg Radek: Intensifying police controls does not make sense

Update from Saturday, February 5th, 2022, 9:00 a.m.: After the killing of a policewoman and her colleague in Kusel, the deputy of the GdP police union, Jörg Radek, rejects a more robust approach by the police. In an interview with the Neue Osnabrücker Zeitung, Radek said when asked whether police officers should in future carry out vehicle checks at gunpoint according to the American model: “No, that’s not a solution.” Radek added: “The police in Germany corresponds to the ideal image of a community-based, civilian police protecting society. It should stay that way.”

Radek does not assume that better protective equipment or more frequent training could have prevented the killing of the two police officers. The union vice said: “In the Kusel case, two perpetrators unscrupulously and in cold blood murdered two police officers during a vehicle check. The police cannot protect themselves against that.”

In his opinion, the public debate is less about the police having to learn lessons from this act and more about society having to learn from it: “Namely, finding out what needs to change so that something like this doesn’t happen again,” said Radek. The police need more respect for their work.

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Deadly shots at the police: new details about Andreas S. known

+++ 18:54: Are the police targeting another man in addition to Andreas S. and Florian V.? The Saarbrücker Zeitung reports that a third person was searched. The West Palatinate police headquarters could not confirm such a search when asked.

“As things stand at present, there is no third suspect for the murders or for poaching,” said the Kaiserslautern public prosecutor. In the course of the previous investigations, several searches were carried out on witnesses. A suspicion against the relevant owners of the search object cannot be concluded from this.

According to the Saarbrücker Zeitung report, the two suspects reported to a person and asked for roadside assistance.

“In the property in Sulzbach, where both suspects were arrested, a shotgun and a rifle (inviter) were secured,” the prosecutor said. Other firearms were also seized. The ongoing investigation would also relate to the question of what the two suspects did between the shots and the arrest, insofar as this is relevant to the investigation of the crime.

Deadly shots at the police: new details about Andreas S. known

+++ 2.45 p.m .: After the fatal shots at a 24-year-old police officer and her 29-year-old colleague, two men from Saarland are in custody. More and more information is now becoming known about the main suspect Andreas S. He is said to have been known as a poacher among hunters in Saarland, reports the Saarbrücker Zeitung. “Andreas had a hunting license, but he wasn’t a hunter. He shot animals at random. It had nothing to do with the values of a hunt. It was all about profit for him,” the newspaper quoted a hunter who is said to know the 38-year-old well. Even after Andreas S. had lost his gun license and his hunting license, he continued to hunt illegally and poached in foreign areas. In recent years he is said to have turned to poaching, reports the news portal Focus Online. He had previously bought large numbers of animals killed from the Saarforst state company. However, Saarforst finally ended the business relationship with Andreas S.

Andreas S. is said to have shot and processed around 400 to 500 hoofed game per year in the area between the French border, Kaiserslautern and Kusel – i.e. deer, stags, wild boar. This is evident from a voice message from Dieter Mahr, President of the State Hunting Association of Rhineland-Palatinate, to his hunting community, which is available to Focus Online. Accordingly, Andreas S. is said to have used forbidden night target technology, to have been out with four hunting dogs and even to have issued hunting invitations to foreign areas. Mahr is said to have warned the hunters in the voice message: “In an emergency, return to the car with the weapon at the ready if you have a bad feeling.”

Fatal shots in Kusel: Andreas S. is said to have been “a top shooter”.

According to an acquaintance, Andreas S. has always been “really obsessed with hunting and a top shooter,” according to the news portal report. There have always been rumors that he would poach. The Saarland judiciary has investigated the two suspects several times in the past. In 2006, Andreas S. seriously injured a fellow hunter with a shot in the neck and chest area and in particular in the area of one eye, the public prosecutor’s office in Saarbrücken announced on Thursday. In addition, he is said to have shot a deer in a foreign hunting ground in 2017 and then drove dangerously towards a man in his car. According to the public prosecutor’s office, however, the proceedings were discontinued.

Deadly shots at the police: Prime Minister Malu Dreyer speaks at a commemoration event

+++ 11.30 a.m .: The shots at the police in Kusel caused horror across the country. A minute’s silence commemorated the murdered police forces. Before the start of the commemoration ceremony, Prime Minister Malu Dreyer said: “This cruel act brings the police family even closer together”. Expressing her condolences, she said she recognizes that “in a situation like this, words are of little comfort.”

Federal Minister of the Interior Nancy Faeser took part in a minute’s silence by the Federal Police at the main train station in Frankfurt. She thanked the police officers who “risk their lives every day” for the security of society.

Commemorating the police forces killed in Kusel: minute’s silence at 10 a.m

+++ 10.30 a.m .: A minute’s silence was held at 10 a.m. throughout Germany, including the Hamburg police. “The Hamburg police sympathize and are thinking of their colleagues in the Rhineland-Palatinate police, the families and friends of the deceased,” the officials had previously announced. “We commemorate in silence.”

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Nationwide minute of silence: commemoration of killed police officers in Kusel

+++ 09.00 a.m .: The police throughout Germany commemorated the two murdered officials from Kusel in Rhineland-Palatinate on Friday at 10.00 a.m. with a minute’s silence. There will also be an internal police commemoration event in Kusel, in which the Rhineland-Palatinate Prime Minister Malu Dreyer and State Interior Minister Roger Lewentz (both SPD) want to take part as guests. The commemoration is not public. According to the Ministry of the Interior, the state government is planning a public funeral at a later date.

Deadly shots at police officers: Andreas S. is said to have threatened the second suspect with death

Update from Friday, February 4th, 2022, 7.30 a.m .: The younger of the two men who are in custody after the fatal attack on a 24-year-old police officer and her 29-year-old colleague stated during his interrogation that he himself was accused of suspect Andreas S .to have been threatened with death. This is reported by the editorial network Germany (RND), citing legal circles.

According to his lawyer, 32-year-old Florian V. confessed to having helped Andreas S. poach, for example by loading the killed animals. However, he also stated that he had never fired a live weapon. For the night of the crime, when two police officers died in Kusel, this is to be proven by a gunpowder test, in which V., according to the lawyer, “actively participated”. According to the RND, an official result of the test is still pending.

Deadly shots at police officers in Kusel: lawyer provides information about the 32-year-old

Only a few details were known about the 32-year-old alleged accomplice Florian V., which the suspect’s lawyer has now added to the conversation with the RND. Accordingly, Florian V. lived in “extremely cramped economic circumstances” and did not have a particularly close relationship with his accomplice. The acquaintance between the two men was neither long-term nor close. Florian V. also lives in a relationship and his partner sticks by him.

As for his motive for not reporting to the police on his own initiative, V. had testified according to RND information that Andreas S. himself had threatened him with death. However, his lawyer did not comment on this statement. According to his public information, V. will not make any further statements to the police for the time being. He would also not undergo a psychiatric report for the time being.

Deadly shots at police officers in Kusel – justice with further details

+++ 9.45 p.m .: After the fatal shots in the Kusel district in Rhineland-Palatinate, a nationwide minute’s silence and an internal police memorial service will take place on Friday (February 4th, 2022) to honor the shot 24-year-old police officer and her 29-year-old colleague commemorate The Rhineland-Palatinate Prime Minister Malu Dreyer and State Interior Minister Roger Lewentz (both SPD) are expected to attend the non-public memorial service in Kusel, Palatinate, in addition to relatives and colleagues of the dead officials. An official memorial service is planned for a later date.

The Rhineland-Palatinate state parliament wants the two police officers in the plenary session on 16./17. commemorate february In Saarland, Prime Minister Tobias Hans (CDU) presented a book of condolences in the State Chancellery on Thursday.

After applause from the “lateral thinker” scene: investigation group against hate comments on the Internet

The State Criminal Police Office of Rhineland-Palatinate has meanwhile set up an investigative group against hate comments on the Internet. The 14 officers are to find the authors of applause for the perpetrators of Kusel. Cooperation with the Federal Criminal Police Office (BKA) is also planned.

The Rhineland-Palatinate state head of the police union (GdP), Sabrina Kunz, announced that she assumes that the investigative group and the public prosecutor’s office are working flat out to identify the perpetrators of such hate and hate comments. Kunz called for such acts not to be accepted. “I seriously wonder what is wrong with these people for expressing this profound hatred publicly.”

After deadly shots in Kusel: the judiciary gives new details

+++ 4.30 p.m .: In order to cover up poaching, two men in the Kusel district in Rhineland-Palatinate allegedly shot a police officer and a police officer. Now the judiciary is giving new details about the investigation. A total of 22 fallow deer were found in the suspect’s car, the Kaiserslautern public prosecutor said. In addition, animal waste was secured in the sausage kitchen of a suspect in Sulzbach, Saarland.

The two suspects are in custody on charges of joint murder and commercial poaching. According to the public prosecutor’s office, 20 disembodied wild animal carcasses and animal waste were discovered at the whereabouts of a suspect in Spiesen-Elversberg in Saarland. In front of the door there was a refrigerated trailer with meat packed ready for sale and worth several thousand euros. The results of the searches would be evaluated further, it said.

Deadly shots at the police in Kusel: Suspects previously in conflict with the law

The Saarland judiciary has repeatedly investigated both suspects in the past. One of the two men was sentenced in 2006 by the Saarbrücken district court to a fine of 90 daily rates of 50 euros each for negligent bodily harm in connection with a hunting accident, the public prosecutor in Saarbrücken said. The 38-year-old had seriously injured a fellow hunter with a shot in the neck and chest area and especially in the area of one eye. In addition, the man is said to have shot a deer in a foreign hunting ground in 2017 and then drove dangerously towards a man in his car. The case was dropped because he had an alibi.

According to the public prosecutor, further investigations are underway against the 38-year-old – among other things because of a possible fake crime in order to get money from an insurance company. The man did not admit the crime, it said.

The second suspect arrested, a 32-year-old, has been convicted three times since 2018, including for traffic offenses. Several media had previously reported about it.

After deadly shots at police officers – suspect comments on the night of the crime

+++ 12.30 p.m .: Many questions are still open after the double murder of two police officers in Rhineland-Palatinate. The police are currently assuming that the two suspects wanted to cover up their poaching in Kusel and therefore shot the 24-year-old police officer and her 29-year-old colleague. One of the two suspects has already made a partial confession and admitted the allegation of poaching. However, the 32-year-old denied having shot himself, said senior public prosecutor Stefan Orthen at a press conference on Tuesday. During the interrogation, he spoke in more detail about the night of the crime and heavily incriminated the 38-year-old Andreas S., as reported by the news portal Focus Online.

Accordingly, the 32-year-old is said to have stated that the main suspect Andreas S. only asked him for his help with an illegal hunt. Among other things, he should have helped to balance the killed animals in the transporter. Andreas S. alone fired the shots. The 32-year-old is said to have explained that the main suspect shot the 24-year-old police officer in the head with a shotgun when she asked for papers. Focus Online claims to have learned this from legal circles. Andreas S. is said to have killed her colleague with four shots from a single-shot rifle.

Deadly shots in Kusel: Second suspect burdens Andreas S. heavily

In addition, the 32-year-old is said to have assured the police that he had never fired a sharp weapon. According to his own statement, he was no longer able to intervene in what was happening to prevent the murders. Previous investigations into traces of smoke on the hands should not be able to refute these statements, reports Focus Online. This information has not yet been officially confirmed.

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After deadly shots in Kusel: new information about the suspect

First report from February 3rd, 2022, 9:45 a.m.: Kusel – “They are shooting” was the last thing the colleagues heard from the two police forces in Kusel before the fatal shots were fired. The incident in Rhineland-Palatinate caused consternation across Germany. Federal Interior Minister Nancy Faeser* (SPD)* spoke on Twitter of an “execution”.

On Monday (January 31, 2021), the day of the incident, the police reported the success of the search. Two men were arrested in Saarland. But what is known so far about the alleged perpetrators and the terrible act? An overview.

Deadly shots at the police in Kusel: This is known about the crime

In the morning, a 24-year-old police officer and her 29-year-old colleague were traveling in an unmarked vehicle. Your order was to take action against property crime, said the head of the police operation, Heiner Schmolzi, at a press conference on the incident in Kusel. Because the control took place in a place that was not suitable for it, he assumes that the police officers found the vehicle with the suspects standing. The two officials probably assumed it was a breakdown or a wildlife accident. According to the police, the trunk of the car was full of wild animals.

Then the shots were fired. The 24-year-old police officer was shot in the head. According to the investigators, the 29-year-old chief inspector was hit by four shots, one of them in the head. He himself fired 14 times, but according to current knowledge, neither of the two suspects was hit

After deadly shots in Kusel: police give details

The suspects were initially on the run, but were arrested on Monday in Saarland. Andreas S.’s identity card and driver’s license were found on the vehicle. The 38-year-old man has been placed on the wanted list. In the evening he was arrested in Sulzbach near his home. In the course of searching several objects, the second suspect, a 32-year-old man, was arrested without resistance.

The Saarlanders have been in custody on suspicion of joint murder and poaching since Tuesday (February 1st, 2022). Andreas S. has been silent so far. The 32-year-old Florian V. made a partial confession, according to the investigators. He admitted the allegation of poaching. Shots were also fired. However, the 32-year-old denied having shot himself.

However, the investigators assume that at least two weapons were used – and that they were used by both suspects. The authorities now want to clarify, among other things, whether the men had gun ownership cards, as the public prosecutor in Kaiserslautern announced. A large arsenal of weapons was seized when the men were arrested. There are no indications of a politically motivated act or any connections to the so-called Reich Citizens’ Scene. The police already have a guess as to the motive.

Kusel: After deadly shots at the police – the motive

The investigators already had a suspicion about the motive for the crime in Kusel. They believe the suspects wanted to cover up their poaching. There is bewilderment. At the press conference on the crime, a journalist asks the investigators: “That’s actually not enough to simply shoot two police officers dead?”.

Factors were mentioned, fragile social conditions and a difficult economic situation, but he couldn’t think of that. When asked whether it was possible to be under the influence of alcohol or drugs, or whether psychological factors played a role, the senior public prosecutor explains: “At the moment I can’t tell you anything about it, except that you’re stunned in front of it, it can’t be explained.”

Deadly shots in Kusel: malice in the social networks

Kaiserslautern police chief Michael Denne said that the entire Rhineland-Palatinate police force was “very concerned” after the death of his colleagues. “Since 4:22 a.m., a new time calculation has applied to us. We are shocked, deeply appalled and saddened.” Monday morning at 4:22 a.m. is the alleged time of the crime. The investigators also spoke of applause in the direction of the perpetrators on social media.

This will not be accepted, announced Frank Gautsche from the West Palatinate Criminal Investigation Directorate. The authorities would closely investigate these “disgusting posts” and do everything possible to prosecute the senders of hate mail. Telegram messages about the crime in Kusel caused horror from the “lateral thinking” scene, among others.

(slo/sne with dpa/AFP/rtr) *fr.de is an offer from IPPEN.MEDIA.

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