German public opinion and politics are in shock after a no-mask citizen in the western city of Idar-Oberstein, Rhineland-Palatinate, shot a 20-year-old gas station cashier in the forehead. she had scolded him for having no mask. The attacker, 49, arrived at the gas station at 7:45 pm last Saturday and, upon entering the store, took a case of beer. The cashier, seeing him without the mask, scolded him, pointing out the presence of the signs indicating the obligation and refusing to serve him. A dispute arose, after which the customer put down the cash register and left.
The forty-nine-year-old returned almost a couple of hours later, this time with the mask on his face, which he took off as he approached the cash desk. Another discussion with the cashier arose. At that point the no-mask pulled out a gun and shot the student straight in the head, who died instantly. The man appeared the next day to the authorities, confessing to the murder.
According to the words of the prosecutor Kai Fuhrmann, the attacker said he felt “surrounded by measures to combat the coronavirus” and “increasingly violated in his rights”. The murderer also accused the victim of being “responsible, on the whole, for the situation, since he enforced the rules too stringently.” Idar-Oberstein residents placed flowers and candles outside the gas station. German police revealed that the perpetrator of the act illegally possessed the weapon used for the killing and that he had a clean record.
The event took place a few days after the vote in Germany on September 26 for the chancellery. The finance minister and SPD candidate as Angela Merkel’s successor, Olaf Scholz, declared in a tweet “that he was shocked by the killing of someone who only wanted to protect himself and others”. “As a society, we must resolutely oppose hatred,” added Scholz, “the perpetrator must be severely punished.”
Annalena Baerbock, the candidate for the Green Chancellor, said she was “shaken” by the murder and “very worried” about the growing radicalization of no-mask groups. Paul Ziemiak, general secretary of the CDU (Merkel’s party), said that the victim was “practically executed”, in an act that showed “an inconceivable level of radicalization”.
Tagesspiegel newspaper reported that in far-right Telegram groups the murder was commented on with cheers and thumbs up emojis. Germany since the start of the pandemic has witnessed numerous no mask demonstrations, some of which have attracted tens of thousands of people. The strongest voice against Covid-19 restrictions is the “Querdenker” movement, or “lateral thinkers.” Their marches have attracted vaccine skeptics, neo-Nazis and members of the far-right German Afd party.