A good year after a bloody clash between rockers and clan members in Duisburg, special forces arrested two suspected main perpetrators. The SEK stormed the apartments of the two 38-year-olds in Duisburg on Monday morning. The investigators believe that they fired numerous shots during the tumult on Hamborn’s Altmarkt. Four people were injured at the time. After tough investigations, these are the first arrests in the case. According to the public prosecutor’s office, they are investigating a total of 51 suspects, among other things for serious breaches of the peace.
The investigations into the “closed-off clan and rocker structures” are difficult, the police and the public prosecutor announced on Monday. More than 100 people were involved in the dispute between the Hells Angels and a Turkish-Lebanese clan at the time – the personal details of most of them are now known. At least 19 shots were fired, fights broke out and four people were injured.
All those involved came “from the rocker and clan milieu that was organized and classified as serious criminals,” the North Rhine-Westphalia Ministry of the Interior said at the time. According to their own statements, the investigators worked their way through large quantities of film and photo recordings. Securing evidence at the crime scene was also complex.
The suspects did not speak to the police. “To date, there has only been speculation about the precise background to the crime,” the investigators emphasize. Nevertheless, it was possible to identify and arrest the two shooters. One of the arrested belonged to the side of the rockers, the other to the criminal clan. A judge had issued arrest warrants for attempted manslaughter against both of them prior to the raid. Investigations into the other suspects continued, police and prosecutors said.
NRW Interior Minister Herbert Reul (CDU) praised the investigators’ work. “Anyone who thinks they can organize a high noon in Hamborn must still expect a home visit a year after the fact,” he said. “Our constitutional state has clear answers ready for clan and biker criminals who are at war with each other. Today’s arrests of two suspected gunmen show that we are not letting up and that meticulous investigative work pays off in the end.”
