Mettmann
Man shoots neighbors with air rifle and sets fire
A fire engine of the fire brigade on an emergency trip. photo
© Lino Mirgeler/dpa/symbol image
A 33-year-old man is said to have seriously injured his neighbors in Heiligenhaus, south of Essen, with shots from an airgun and then set fire to them. A 25-year-old woman called the police and reported that she and her 30-year-old husband were shot, the police in Mettmann said on Friday.
The man entered his neighbor’s apartment and set fire there. Special forces arrived. The injured couple and their few-month-old daughter escaped from the smoke on the balcony of their first-floor apartment.
While the 33-year-old appeared on the neighboring balcony of his apartment, the family was rescued from their balcony using a turntable ladder. The parents were injured in the hospital, their baby was unharmed. The special forces arrested the suspect known to the police.
At the police station, it was determined that he had drunk 1.2 per mille of alcohol at the time of the crime on Friday morning. The family home was damaged in the fire. An airgun was seized as a suspected murder weapon.
“These were dramatic scenes,” said a police spokeswoman. “All the guardian angels were in Heiligenhaus today.” Although the parents would have to be treated as inpatients in the hospital, they are not in mortal danger.
