Six killed in shooting at youth welfare centre in Germany’s Stade
Police say the gunman was embroiled in a custody battle over his three-month old daughter.
A gunman embroiled in a custody battle over his three-month-old daughter has killed six people and wounded another at a child welfare centre in the town of Stade near Hamburg in Germany.
The gunman was arrested following the shooting on Monday. He tried to flee in a car driven by a 55-year-old woman believed to have “a close connection to the gunman’s family” but was captured after a short chase, according to Kathrin Schuol, the police chief for Lueneburg, who is leading the investigation.
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“The perpetrator had an appointment today, along with many of the victims, to discuss future custody arrangements for his three-month-old daughter,” Schuol said. “Both the child and her mother were present at the location but were not injured by gunfire.”
Emergency workers rushed to the scene of the shooting and found four people already dead. A fifth person died soon after at the scene, while a sixth later succumbed to their wounds.
The police chief said the victims – four women and two men – were all child welfare workers, and had all been shot “in a brutal manner”. A seventh person was reportedly wounded but is in a stable condition.
The child welfare facility includes temporary accommodation for pregnant women or young mothers with children.
Footage posted by Bild newspaper showed a car with a blown-out right tyre slowing to a halt in a tree-lined road.
Police opened fire on the car but neither the suspected gunman nor the driver were hurt, the police chief said. Both are being held in police custody.
The area was closed off by police as forensic experts in white suits and plainclothes police arrived at the scene.
The suspect was previously known to police and had made threats in the past, but “has not previously been regarded as a particularly violent individual”, Schuol said.
She said the suspect did not have a firearms licence, and it remains unclear how he obtained the weapon. She added that the suspect lives in Hanover, about 200 kilometres (125 miles) to the south.
The girl’s mother told police after the shooting that she was no longer in a relationship with the suspect, Schuol said.
Stade is about 45km (27 miles) to the west of Hamburg, with a population of nearly 50,000 people.
