The regional court Mannheim has the gunman who killed two people with his car in downtown Mannheim on Shrove Mondaysentenced to life imprisonment for murder and attempted murder. The verdict is not yet final. The 40-year-old is being held in a psychiatric hospital. Already during the trial he was considered to have a reduced level of criminal responsibility due to mental illness.
Were on March 3rd at the incident two people were killed and 14 were injured. The perpetrator, who came from Ludwigshafen, drove his car into a pedestrian zone at 50 kilometers per hour and then accelerated to up to 80 kilometers per hour. According to the public prosecutor’s office, he targeted several passers-by. The dead were an 83-year-old woman and a 54-year-old man.
The taxi driver stopped the perpetrator while turning
The driver became involved in his crime stopped by a taxi driverwhich blocked his path in a dead end where the perpetrator wanted to turn around. According to the prosecution, the perpetrator then fired a blank gun at the windshield to intimidate the taxi driver. He then fled. Accordingly, he shot himself in the mouth with the gun and hid in a rail channel under a crane, where the police found him.
According to police, at a hospital he said he had lost his job and was unable to take his medication. The perpetrator was held in custody after treatment. According to the public prosecutor’s office, he has suffered from a mental disorder for many years. The testimony of a psychiatric expert consulted in the trial was made in camera.
Both the prosecution and the defense demanded that the perpetrator be placed in a psychiatric hospital. With the verdict of life imprisonment, the court complied with the public prosecutor’s demand, which was also supported by the co-plaintiffs. The defense had not made its own request regarding the amount of the sentence.
