Hamburg, June30, (dpa/GNA) – Forensic experts and investigators, were working intensively on Tuesday to determine the circumstances of a shooting, at a youth welfare facility in northern Germany the previous day, that left six adults dead.
Four women and two men died at a residential home for mothers and children, in the northern town of Stade, west of Hamburg, on Monday, in what police believe was an attack linked to a custody dispute.
Authorities said three employees of the regional youth welfare office were killed, alongside staff members from the facility. According to initial findings, all six victims had an appointment with the alleged perpetrator, to discuss custody of the man’s 3-month-old daughter.
Emergency services found four people dead at the facility. They attempted, unsuccessfully, to resuscitate another person at the scene, while the sixth victim died in hospital.
Contrary to earlier reports, there were no further injuries, police said. The two people initially reported as injured were those later confirmed dead, a spokeswoman said.
The 45-year-old suspect attempted to flee in a car, driven by a 65-year-old woman, before being stopped and detained shortly after the incident. The man, a Turkish citizen who was born in Germany, is in police custody. The public prosecutor’s office is expected to issue him with a formal arrest warrant later on Tuesday.
According to the current status of the investigation, the woman has close ties to the suspect’s family. She was also questioned by the police, but a spokesman for the public prosecutor’s office declined to comment on whether she was being held in custody.
The police have not yet disclosed what type of firearm was used in the incident, or how the perpetrator obtained it. The authorities said the 45-year-old does not hold a firearms licence. Police said the suspect was known to them but, according to LĂĽneburg’s chief of police, Kathrin Schuol, he was not considered “extremely violent.”
The 34-year-old mother of the child and her 3-month-old daughter, the suspect’s child, were unharmed during the incident. The police interviewed the woman, whilst the baby was placed in the care of the youth welfare office.
Politicians and organizations expressed their condolences after the incident, with Chancellor Friedrich Merz writing on X that the news was “profoundly shocking.”
A prayer service is scheduled for Tuesday evening at St Wilhadi’s Protestant Church in the centre of Stade. “I am deeply shaken by the act of violence in our town,” Bishop Sabine Preuschoff said in a statement.
GNA