Stuttgart. After an explosive device – presumably a hand grenade – was thrown at a mourners in Altbach (Esslingen district), an arrest warrant was issued for three men. This was announced by the State Criminal Police Office and the Stuttgart public prosecutor’s office on Thursday. Two men aged 20 and 21 are in custody on suspicion of attempted manslaughter and dangerous bodily harm, a 19-year-old is accused of violating the Weapons Act.
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The two men, aged 20 and 21, are said to have pursued the attacker, who threw an explosive object at the mourners last Friday, and beat him so badly that he had to be hospitalized. The alleged thrower, a 23-year-old man, is already in custody. Investigators believe it was a hand grenade. The motive for the crime remains unclear.
Police and LKA searched the apartments of the three suspects aged 19, 20 and 21 in Ludwigsburg during a raid in the early hours of the morning on Wednesday. Investigators found a sharp gun and ammunition on the 19-year-old. The LKA is currently checking whether this weapon was used in other crimes, such as a series of shots in the greater Stuttgart area.
more on the subject
The internal affairs committee is also dealing with the events in Altbach. A spokeswoman for the Ministry of the Interior said on Thursday in Stuttgart that department head Thomas Strobl (CDU) had offered the chairman of the committee information about the case in a special session.
The domestic policy spokeswoman for the Liberals, Julia Goll, told the German Press Agency that reporting on the events had now reached a dynamic that required special attention from the Interior Committee. “Questions about the background to the crime, the possible connection with other crimes in public space, but also about the use of undercover investigators, arise.” The meeting is expected to take place next week on June 21st.
A man had thrown an explosive device at a mourners in the cemetery in Altbach on Friday. Ten people were injured in the explosion, one seriously.
According to a report in the “Stuttgarter Nachrichten” and “Stuttgarter Zeitung” (Thursday), the funeral was monitored by Stuttgart police forces. However, the officers apparently fled the scene of the crime when the explosive device exploded. According to the report, one of the police officers was even wanted at times as a possible second suspect. In addition, the State Criminal Police Office (LKA), which is actually responsible, is said to have previously rejected technical and human monitoring of the funeral service in advance.
A spokesman for the State Criminal Police Office said he could not provide any information. He cited “operational tactical concerns” as the reason. One does not want to endanger the ongoing investigations and “in particular the covert measures”.
The public prosecutor’s office in Stuttgart has started preliminary investigations against police officers in the case. An “examination process has been created to determine whether there may be criminally relevant processes against police officers,” said a spokesman for the authority. The “Stuttgarter Zeitung” and “Stuttgarter Nachrichten” (Friday) reported about it first.
The SPD politician Sascha Binder said it was urgently necessary to deal with the incidents in parliament, initially in the interior committee. “But it also needs to be discussed why the necessary awareness of gang crime simply does not reach the top of the police force and the Ministry of the Interior.” And the Minister of the Interior had to explain why investigators were actually on site, but left the crime scene immediately after the attack instead of arresting suspects.
Interior Minister Thomas Strobl rejected the allegations. The police have been investigating “intensively and relentlessly for weeks to clear up the crimes in which people were shot at around Stuttgart,” said the CDU politician, according to a statement. “The opposition is completely wrong to rabble here.”