The intensive search for the shooter, who is said to have shot three people in front of a fast-food restaurant in Oberhausen, continues today. The search should be extended to Europe as far as possible.
Since yesterday, a homicide commission has been publicly searching for a photo of a 51-year-old man from Essen. “We are still looking for the man,” said a police spokeswoman on Monday. Concrete indications of his possible whereabouts by witnesses have not yet been received. Police and prosecutors warned against addressing the suspect because he was dangerous and could still be armed. In the early afternoon, they also published a personal description and a mug shot of the suspect.
According to the investigators’ initial findings, a dispute between two groups suddenly escalated on Saturday evening to such an extent that there was a physical altercation and then a total of four shots were fired. Three people were injured. A 49-year-old suffered an initially life-threatening shot in the abdomen. After an emergency operation, however, there is no longer an acute danger to life, said Duisburg public prosecutor Jill McCuller.
In an interview today, McCuller said a search of an apartment did not locate the suspect and his family. It is assumed “that he is on the run with his family members and intends to emigrate abroad in the near future”. So far there has only been a national arrest warrant on suspicion of attempted manslaughter, but the aim is to expand the search across Europe.
They probably weren’t accidental victims
In addition to the 49-year-old, a 47-year-old woman and a 28-year-old man were injured by the shots. The woman suffered a bullet in the leg, the man in the arm. According to the public prosecutor’s office, all three of the injured come from Gelsenkirchen and are being treated in the hospital. The suspected shooter – a Turkish national – had fled in a car, according to initial findings.
The investigators assume that the injured are not accidental victims, but that a meeting was arranged – and that more people were involved on both sides. There may be business relationships between the people, it said. According to McCuller, it was about money debts, among other things.
Recordings from surveillance cameras should provide further insight into the course of the crime. Just two and a half hours after the shots were fired in the Ruhr area city of Oberhausen, police officers provisionally arrested a 40-year-old man in Gelsenkirchen. He is said to have been present at the act but not shot. He was in police custody. Investigations into the background to the crime and the suspected shooter are ongoing.
