An 18-year-old German shot dead a student at his university and injured three of his fellow students when he entered a school amphitheater in Heidelberg on Monday (January 24th). He opened fire during a lesson before turning the gun on himself. Here’s what we know about the drama.
The attack took place in full course
About 30 students were attending a class when the shooter burst in and fired several shots using a “long gun”, probably a rifle, described local police chief Siegfried Kollmar. The attack took place at midday, causing amazement in this famous university, the oldest in the country, located between Frankfurt and Stuttgart.
Police received the first emergency calls from inside the amphitheater at 12:24 p.m. Officers arrived on the scene ten minutes later, investigators said at a press conference. They discovered the body of the shooter, who had turned the gun on himself, outside the building.
The attack led to a large police operation on the campus located on the north bank of the Neckar river, which notably hosts faculties of natural sciences, departments of the university hospital center and a botanical garden.
It left one dead and three injured
The shooting injured four people, including a 23-year-old woman who died of her injuries in hospital a few hours later. The other three students were injured in the legs, back and face, it said. Siegfried Kolmar.
The shooter was a student at this university
A science student at this university, the shooter was 18 years old. He was not known to the police, according to the first elements of the investigation.
The young man carried two weapons “bought abroad”, according to the investigators, and “more than a hundred ammunition” were found in his backpack. The motivations for this gesture remain, according to the prosecution, to be determined. However, investigators reported “first clues” showing that he was in pain “of a long-standing mental illness”. Shortly before the assault, the student had sent his father an alarmist Whatsapp message claiming: “People need to be punished now” and also expressing his wish for a funeral at sea. Investigators searched the home of the shooter in the nearby town of Mannheim, in an attempt to gather more information.
Several politicians expressed their “dismay”
Prime Minister Olaf Scholz expressed his “consternation” after the tragedy. “I am heartbroken to hear such news,” underlined the Social Democratic leader. That “touches me deeply. My thoughts go out to the families and their loved ones. We are at your side”, added Winfried Kretschmann, president of the Land of Baden-Württemberg, where Heidelberg is located, quoted by the Spiegel (in German).
“My thoughts are with the victims and those on site. Thank you to the intervention forces for their service”, wrote on Twitter (in German) Justice Minister Marco Buschmann.