He was on his way to school when suddenly shots were fired: a 16-year-old was killed by a neighbor in front of the door of his home in Bramsche, Lower Saxony, in February 2023. The Osnabrück regional court sentenced the 82-year-old defendant to 13 years in prison for treacherous murder.
The court found it proven that the defendant killed the teenager in front of his mother because of alleged noise pollution. These were experienced by the defendant as “tyranny”. However, the sounds were only in his head.
The accused was diagnosed with paranoid schizophrenia, said presiding judge Ingo Frommeyer. He is dangerous to the general public. The court ordered him to be placed in a psychiatric hospital. The Italian will only begin his prison sentence when he is no longer a danger, said a court spokesman. The verdict is not yet legally binding.
The court ruled that the defendant’s ability to control the crime was significantly reduced due to his mental illness. Nevertheless, he was able to realize that he was not allowed to shoot people. The two-hour verdict was translated to the defendant by an interpreter, and he repeatedly made comments, shook or nodded his head.
The 82-year-old, who appeared significantly younger, had admitted to killing the teenager. He initially shot the 16-year-old down with several shots, but did not sustain any life-threatening injuries. According to the court, when the boy screamed for help and the mother rushed to the terrace to see what was happening, the defendant shot the boy in the forehead at close range. The teenager died a day later. After the crime, the defendant shot himself in the mouth. He suffered non-life-threatening injuries.
With a sporting weapon
The man stated that his motive was that he felt threatened by the young person. The court did not follow this. The 16-year-old “just wanted to go to school quickly” that morning, said the presiding judge. Contrary to what the defendant claimed, there was no dispute. The accused expected the neighbor boy with the sporting weapon with the intent to kill. The 82-year-old was a member of a shooting club but had not been an active shooter since 2004.
For years, the defendant had complained about alleged noise pollution from the apartment where the boy lived with his mother and which was above his. In court, he said he heard recordings of motorcycle noises around the clock. Alarm clocks also constantly went off “on purpose” during the night. “He was convinced the family was deliberately harassing him,” said Frommeyer. He emphasized that other tenants had not noticed any noise coming from the apartment.
The court judged in favor of the defendant that he had no previous convictions and had confessed and apologized. Frommeyer told the defendant that with the crime he had “largely destroyed” the life of the 16-year-old’s mother. “You are responsible for that.”
