Large-scale operation in BaWü: suspected "Reich citizen" shoots at SEK officials

Created: 04/21/2022, 04:50

By: Christoph Gschoßmann, Kai Hartwig

During the SEK operation in Boxberg, the stormed house caught fire.

© SDMG/Kohls/dpa

Shots are fired during a police operation in Baden-Württemberg.

One officer is injured and several people arrested.

There are probably connections to the Reich citizen scene.

Update from April 20, 6:09 p.m .:

During a dramatic police operation in Boxberg between Heilbronn and Würzburg, a suspected Reich citizen shot SEK officials.

A police officer was injured - but not life-threatening, as a spokeswoman said on Wednesday.

He was probably hit in the leg.

Special forces wanted to examine the building in Baden-Württemberg early in the morning.

Several shots were fired.

The search took place on suspicion of illegal possession of weapons.

A total of seven people were provisionally arrested.

According to dpa information, the man against whom the police action was directed once legally owned at least one weapon.

There was an order from the weapons authority that he had to hand it over.

This injunction should be enforced.

Baden-Württemberg's Interior Minister Thomas Strobl (CDU) said in Stuttgart: "There are indications that the alleged perpetrator is close to or belongs to the Reich Citizens' Scene."

The alleged main perpetrator resisted arrest.

A politically motivated background to the fact cannot be ruled out, the spokeswoman said.

According to the police, the other people were arrested without resistance and unharmed in the property.

A fire broke out.

The building burned down in a controlled manner, it said. 

Bloody end in police operation in Boxberg

First report from April 20, 3:40 p.m.:

Boxberg – In Boxberg in Baden-Württemberg, a police operation came to a bloody end on Wednesday.

A SEK officer was shot.

A police spokeswoman said on Wednesday that the officers were shot several times while they tried to search a building.

Accordingly, the shot police officer of the special task force was hit in the leg.

However, his injury is not life-threatening, it said.

The police search in Boxberg, which lies between Heidelberg and Würzburg not far from the border between Baden-Württemberg and Bavaria, was carried out on suspicion of illegal possession of weapons.

During the police action, a man resisted arrest and was arrested.

Shots were fired during a police operation in Boxberg, Baden-Württemberg.

© SDMG/Kohls/dpa

Shots during police operation in Boxberg (Baden-Würtemmberg) – perpetrator a “Reich citizen”?

Several media reported that the arrested person was a supporter of the so-called Reichsbürger scene.

The police spokeswoman declined to comment on this.

Nevertheless, a politically motivated background to the crime cannot be ruled out.

According to the police, other people who were staying in the property were arrested without resistance and unharmed.

Defusers then searched the building.

There was a suspicion that there might be ammunition or something similar there.

Also, there was a fire.

As part of the police measure, the Bobstadt district was temporarily cordoned off.

Residents have been asked to keep their doors and windows closed.

After shots in the police operation: Union boss Kusterer warns of the "Reich citizen scene"

The head of the German police union, Ralf Kusterer, meanwhile said: "For years, the police have been concerned with the increasing danger emanating from 'Reich citizens'." In this context, he remembers the killing of a SEK officer in Bavaria in 2016.

This incident showed the potential danger that one had to reckon with.

Therefore, wherever weapons are involved, the alarm bells should ring, said Kusterer.

The Office for the Protection of the Constitution assumes that around 3,300 people in Baden-Württemberg are part of this scene.

The "Reichsbürger" and "Selbstverwalter" deny the existence of the Federal Republic of Germany and its legal system.

They deny politicians and civil servants their legitimacy and repeatedly break the law.