He comes back, puts on the nose-and-mouth protection, stands in line, waits until every customer at the checkout in the Aral gas station pays – only then does he tear the mask off his face. The man wants to provoke. He knows very well that the Mask obligation will admonish. Because it experienced in such a way, exactly in such a way, one and a half hours before.
Now the repeat takes an abrupt turn. This time he pulls out a large caliber Colt out of his pocket and shoots the cashier, a 20-year-old student. "This is the first case of a killing in connection with Corona," emphasizes the deputy head of the police union (GdP), Jorg Radek, in an interview with our editorial team.
Idar-Oberstein, Saturday evening, 21.25 o'clock: In the Rhineland-Palatinate province it looks at first like an ordinary Violent crime from. Only the motive, which emerges two days later, makes it an act with a nationwide signal effect. Cashier had to die because he insisted on mask compliance. It is the case constellation that many security experts have long feared.
For 2020, 3559 politically motivated crimes related to Covid-19 were reported, according to a situation report from the Federal Criminal Police Office. "We perceive since last year a radicalization of Corona opponents. Especially in connection with demonstrations in the lateral thinking milieu," says GdP Vice President Radek. It is important, he says, for the security authorities to focus on radical forces. Be it from the left, the right or from the Crossroads Scene, Says the unionist.
Verfangsschutz warned of violence with fatal outcome
On 6. September warned the president of the Federal Office for Verfangsschutz, Thomas Haldenwang, during a TV documentary on ProSieben about the scene of Corona deniers: "The radicalism is increasing in any case. It is also a spiral of violence that spirals upward."If it continues to grow, if it continues to be fueled by hatred and agitation, "I would not exclude the possibility that such violence could also end fatally at some point. Like in Idar-Oberstein.
The alleged perpetrator, a 49-year-old German from Idar-Oberstein, turned himself in the morning after the crime. Until then, he had "not come to the attention of the police," according to the responsible police headquarters in Trier. He was also not on the radar screen of the Verfangsschutz. It is also not sure whether he was in the scene of Corona deniers and Impfverweigerer was active.
Strictly speaking, one cannot speak of an act of affection in the narrower sense. Because between his first and second exchange of words with the cashier, 100 minutes lie. 100 minutes, during which he apparently Homicide grabs a gun, rushes back to the gas station and flees on foot.
The investigators have it easy. All you have to do is watch the videos of the Surveillance cameras evaluate. Still in the night they search with a photo for the man with the dark trousers and the white T-Shirt with the label of an American beer brand. The police soon receive numerous tips, and another man is picked up and questioned in a pub during the night, but is able to make his innocence credible.
After the perpetrator surrenders to police, he testifies that he refuses Corona protections and shot the cashier out of anger that the cashier rebuked him. At his home, investigators find more Firearms and ammunition.
Currently, they are focusing on what he was doing in the gas station during the long period between the two disputes and where he got the weapons from. Also about the State of mind of the suspect is still little known.
An "inconceivable escalation," says FDP interior politician Konstantin Kuhle. In it "the whole contempt for the community, which emanates from the radical cross-thinker and Corona denier scene" is shown. SPD candidate for chancellor Olaf Scholz is "shocked" and stresses that as a society we must resolutely oppose hatred. "The perpetrator must be severely punished." So or so sounded the first reactions in Berlin. Much perplexity is about to.
The act is not unique. At least abroad, there have been fatal confrontations in the past in disputes about the mask requirement. In South of France In July 2020, an assault on a bus driver caused nationwide horror. The man had turned back four passengers at a bus stop who tried to board without protective masks and ordered several passengers without masks to disembark. Thereupon he was attacked and life-threateningly injured. In the hospital he suffered brain death.
In the U.S., several incidents similar to Idar-Oberstein made headlines: In Georgia in June, a Mask refusenik A supermarket cashier. In Michigan in May 2020, a security guard at a branch of the Family Dollar discount chain died after a customer shot him in the head. Previously, the security guard had told her daughter to wear a mask.
On the net, right-wingers and radicals rejoice over the murder
What must frighten German politicians about the case in Idar-Oberstein are the abysses that are opening up, the radicalism, the militancy, and not least the echo from the scene. On Telegram channels, the murder is treated like a case of "self-defense". Conspiracy theories make the rounds. It was a false flag action, he said, to create sentiment against Unvaccinated to make."Are they the first to go nuts, or is it just a fake to create sentiment against the unvaccinated?", it says. Or, "If I had done something like that, I would have at least had the mask on. The person should be quite obvious here and I say this is FAKE!"
Yet another user writes: "The poor student probably didn't expect it. At least he won't die of Corona anymore." In the chat channel of the right-wing Conspiracy ideologue Sven Liebich puts one on record that the perpetrator must have been "fed up", "if it hits the right ones, I don't mind"