The people in the tranquil village of Langweid were stunned the day after a 64-year-old shot deadly shots at three neighbors. The German is said to have killed the two women and a man in an apartment building where they all lived together. A boy is now an orphan.
Then he is said to have seriously injured two other people in another house. The possible motive: a dispute among neighbors. The suspect is meanwhile in custody – is being investigated for murder.
The suspect was a sports shooter, according to police. He therefore owned various weapons and a corresponding weapons license. “BR24” initially reported about it. Police officers found several weapons in his car and in his apartment after the crime on Friday evening. Police spokesman Markus Trieb says it is still being clarified whether the 64-year-old has been reported to the police.
Use until the early hours of the morning
Numerous police and emergency services were deployed in the residential area in Langweid am Lech near Augsburg until the early hours of the morning. They cordoned off the crime scene with tape, secured evidence and questioned witnesses.
On Saturday morning there is nothing more to see of the crime: no warning tape, no police cars, only a few people are on the road in the town of Swabia, which has a population of 8,900. A local resident reports how she was woken up by the noise of the helicopters in the night and observed the forensics team in the garden. She seems incredulous and appalled that something like this could happen here.
“It’s a very inconspicuous, quiet suburb – and also a safe place,” said police spokesman Trieb. The volunteer fire brigade had actually invited to a party on Saturday. But now nobody feels like celebrating. “Due to yesterday’s incidents in Langweid, we have made the decision to cancel today’s fire extinguishing party,” says the website.
Previous Investigations
Langweid is a place with many single-family houses and terraced houses. There are rather few apartment buildings like the ones on Schubertstrasse. According to the police investigations so far, the 64-year-old shot a 49-year-old and her 52-year-old husband – the parents of an underage child – in the hallway of a house on Friday evening. The boy is currently with family members and is being looked after professionally, the police said.
He killed a 72-year-old in the same building with a shot through the apartment door. He then seriously injured a 32-year-old woman and a 44-year-old man in a house on Hochvogelstrasse; also with a shot through the apartment door.
The two victims were taken to the hospital but were not life-threatening, police said. There are several hundred meters between the first crime scene and the second. So the second victims were not immediate neighbors. According to current knowledge, the 44-year-old is related to one of the fatalities from Schubertstrasse.
The suspect then fled in his car. Shortly thereafter, the police were able to locate and arrest him. According to the police, he offered no resistance. It was initially unclear why the dispute between the neighbors escalated in such a way. “The background to the crime is currently the subject of investigations,” says Trieb.
Disputes first reported in 2018
In the evening, the police announced: At the end of 2018, they were first informed about neighborhood disputes in Schubertstrasse. “Since then, only a few incidents in the multi-party building have become known. There were investigations into various incidents, such as scuffles, insulting statements and threatening gestures.” In addition, the 64-year-old had not made a police appearance.
The police were only called to the apartment building in which the three people were killed a few hours before the crime – in the afternoon. “When the police patrol was on site a short time later, the 64-year-old had already left,” the officials said.
Discussions on German gun law
The initiative “No murder weapons as sporting weapons” again called for a ban on deadly sports weapons in view of the violent act. “The risk of lethal sports weapons is unmanageable,” said the initiative’s spokesman, Roman Grafe. The German weapons law is too lax. The same weapons as those used in the attacks in Erfurt (2002), Winnenden (2009), Hanau (2020) and Hamburg (2023) can basically be easily acquired by any marksman.
Bavaria’s Interior Minister Joachim Herrmann rejected the demand: “A further tightening of the gun law is currently not up for discussion,” he explained. First of all, it is important to clarify the background to the crime and “to determine why the perpetrator freaked out in such a way”. Germany already has one of the strictest gun laws in Europe. “The vast majority of crimes involving the use of firearms are not committed with legal but with illegal weapons anyway,” stressed Herrmann.
