Poaching is behind the shooting murder of two police officers Monday in southwestern Germany, investigators said on Tuesday who found game in the trunk of one of the two arrested suspects.
“
The murder of the two police officers was intended to cover up the poaching
,” Kaiserslautern prosecutor Stefan Orthen told a press conference with the police.
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The murder of these agents, a 24-year-old woman still in training and a 29-year-old man, on Monday around 4:20 a.m. on a country road caused amazement in Germany, the Interior Minister denouncing an "
execution
" of the two victims while Chancellor Olaf Scholz expressed his grief.
The two police officers were shot in the head on a small road near Kusel, a rural town in the regional state of Rhineland-Palatinate, while checking the vehicle of the two suspects, aged 32 and 38.
The two suspects arrested and taken into custody
The identity card and driving license of the main suspect, the 38-year-old living in the neighboring region of Saarland, were found near the body of the young policewoman.
He had been identified on Monday as Andreas Johannes Schmitt by the investigators who had launched a vast appeal for witnesses to try to find him and deployed significant resources to arrest him.
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This man, known in particular to the police for poaching, was arrested late Monday afternoon at his home in Sulzbach in Saarland.
He was there with the second suspect, also arrested.
They were remanded in custody, said Stefan Orthen.
"
Several weapons
" were found on this occasion, according to the regional police.
"
We assume that two weapons were used and that each of them fired
," continued the prosecutor, pointing out that "
many game
" had been discovered in the trunk of the suspects' vehicle.
The 32-year-old denied shooting one of the two officers but admitted poaching, according to Stefan Orthen.
The other, however, remained silent, according to the same source.