Kitzbühel: Mayor after violence - "Everyone from the city knew them"

Also on Monday the people in the Austrian Kitzbühel are still stunned after the violence with five fatalities. "Everyone from the city knew at least one of the killed family," said Kitzbühel Mayor Klaus Winkler the Austrian news agency APA. It is incomprehensible why the 25-year-old suspect acted in this way.

The perpetrators had been described by colleagues as "neat, quiet and reserved", had been very well integrated into the city community and have also engaged in charitable associations. According to the confession, the 25-year-old shot his 19-year-old ex-girlfriend, her parents, her brother and her new boyfriend out of jealousy.

Already on Sunday Mayor Winkler had commented on the act. "We are all shocked and deeply saddened," he said, "that has never been there before a whole family was so tragically wiped out."

Gun owner unreachable

The police continue their investigation work meanwhile. In addition to supplementary interrogations, the bodies should also be autopsied.

The brother of the suspect, who owned the murder weapon, could not be reached for the time being, according to authorities. He is traveling in the Far East. Why the 25-year-old suspect directed his aggression against the entire family remains unclear. "He does not answer this question, which is why it will not be clear so quickly," said the head of the State Criminal Police Office Walter Pupp.

The killed friend was a 24-year-old ice hockey goalie who was under contract with EC Kitzbühel, the city's ice hockey club, the confirmed Pupp. The second division club expressed his dismay on his homepage, the 24-year-old had been appreciated and popular. On the eve of the act, he had been voted "Man of the Match" at a game because of his outstanding performance, it said.

On the next matchday, the dead player is expected to have a mourning minute or a mourning ribbon for the players, said a league spokesman. The 8000-inhabitant city wants to commemorate the victims with a commemorative event or a memorial mass.

Kitzbühel in shock

In this family home in the Austrian town of Kitzbühel, a 25-year-old reportedly shot his 19-year-old ex-girlfriend, her parents, her brother and her new boyfriend on the night of Sunday.

The 19-year-old had ended the relationship, police said two months earlier. The act was preceded by a dispute between the two former partners in a restaurant in Kitzbühel, said a spokesman for the State Criminal Police Office.

In the night of Sunday, the 25-year-old then knocked on the door of his parents' house of his ex-girlfriend. After the father had rejected him, he had taken a gun and had returned to the house with it.

He had killed the parents of the ex-girlfriend and her brother and then procured over the balcony access to a locked apartment, in which the 19-year-old and her new friend stayed. There he also shot her.

Afterwards, the suspect went to the local police station and asked. He put a pistol and a knife on the counter there and said, "I've just killed five people." The rescuers arrived at the house could later only determine the death of the victims.

People have set up candles in front of the house. "We are all shocked and deeply saddened," said Kitzbühel Mayor Klaus Winkler.

"It has never been there that a whole family was wiped out so tragically," said the mayor. The family of the victim, but also the family of the suspect had been viewed locally.

For the experts of the crisis intervention team the use is not finished yet. Dietmar Kratzer, head of crisis intervention in Tyrol, said that the main aim was "to create awareness for cohesion and mutual support." Since the victim's family and the suspect's family belonged to several associations, a large circle of acquaintances and friends was severely affected by the tragedy, said Gerhard Müller from the crisis intervention team in Kitzbühel.

SPÖ Ortsgruppe causes trouble

A post of a SPÖ Ortsgruppe in Lower Austria, which addressed the FPÖ membership of the 25-year-old suspect, should have internal party consequences. He apologized in the name of the SPÖ Lower Austria "for the unsuspecting and completely irreverent posting of the local group Langenzersdorf," said SPÖ-Landesgeschäftsführer Wolfgang Kocevar. It will apply for the party responsible for a party exclusion for party damaging behavior. Such a tragic event should not be abused for party political purposes and is unworthy of the SPÖ, said Kocevar.

The FPÖ in Tyrol has already excluded the 25-year-old from the party. "The fact is that the alleged perpetrator, in 2014, was a member of the city party leadership of the FPÖ Kitzbühel for two months as a youth officer", said the FPÖ Tyrol. After leaving he was a simple party member without function or mandate.