Shot through apartment door - witness perceives "stare"

Extremism - Shot through apartment door - witness perceives "stare"

In the trial surrounding the potentially fatal shooting of a man through the front door of a young woman's apartment in Hamburg-Niendorf, further witnesses testified on Monday. A neighbor of the 25-year-old Pakistani woman told the Hamburg District Court on Tuesday that he had noticed a change in the accused German a few weeks before the crime. The 49-year-old, who lived in the apartment above the woman, had a "stare" that was also different from when he usually drank. "As if he had something on his mind that he wanted to get rid of."

According to the 86-year-old, he had known the accused for a long time and occasionally met him in the pub. He reported that the defendant often spoke of "trash" when referring to foreign neighbors. He had also once said: "You should shoot the riffraff", the witness confirmed his earlier statement to the police. However, he never knew whether he meant it seriously.

The public prosecutor's office is accusing the accused of attempted murder. At the start of the trial, the man admitted to shooting through his neighbor's closed door with a rifle on May 27 of this year. According to the indictment, he committed the crime "due to his pronounced right-wing extremist and xenophobic views".

The bullet penetrated the door and a chest of drawers and lodged in the wall. No people were hit. They had been in the living room and not in the hallway, according to the pregnant resident and her mother-in-law on the first day of the trial.

The accused had emphasized in his testimony that he had not wanted to hit anyone with the shot. He had only wanted to scare the neighbors, whose alleged loudness had often disturbed him in the past.

Another neighbor called as a witness emphasized on Monday that she had not heard any complaints about the new residents - unlike the previous tenants - because of the noise. The 54-year-old confirmed her earlier statement to the police that she had heard the defendant say to her husband on the day of the crime: "They're monkeys", they should all move away.

Her husband, who also testified as a witness on the second day of the trial, said he could not remember this. However, he reported that the accused had sometimes made right-wing extremist remarks in conversations. "He just made negative comments about foreigners," said the 55-year-old. The trial will continue on Tuesday.

Police report from 28.05.23

Read also:

• European MPs condemn anti-Semitic monuments in Moldova

1. During the trial for the incident involving a shot through the apartment door in Hamburg-Niendorf, the public prosecutor's office accused the accused German of attempted murder, citing his pronounced right-wing extremist and xenophobic views as a motive.
2. The neighbor living above the woman whose apartment was shot at recalled the accused's change in behavior leading up to the crime, including a "stare" that seemed to indicate he had something on his mind.
3. The police report from May 28 mentioned the accused's comments to his neighbor, saying they should "shoot the riffraff," which the neighbor confirmed during his testimony.
4. As the processes continue in the Hamburg District Court, it has been revealed that another neighbor had heard the accused make right-wing extremist remarks about foreigners, indicating a pattern of criminality related to extremism in the case.

Source: www.stern.de