JVA director praises the staff's actions when the hostages were taken

Created: 2022-12-14 2:42 p.m

Day breaks over the wire-proof wall of the Burg correctional facility.

© Klaus-Dietmar Gabbert/dpa

The head of the Burg correctional facility, Ulrike Hagemann, praised the actions of the prison staff when the assassin in Halle was taken hostage.

In particular, one employee who was taken hostage behaved very "skillfully", said Hagemann on Wednesday in the legal committee of the state parliament of Saxony-Anhalt.

He had prepared for his colleagues to overpower the prisoner when he was briefly inattentive.

Burg/Magdeburg - Everything that is trained in exercises has been implemented, said Hagemann.

On Monday evening, the right-wing extremist Halle assassin temporarily seized control of two employees in the Burg prison near Magdeburg.

The 30-year-old was overpowered by other correctional officers inside the prison.

In the committee, Hagemann described the processes in detail.

During the so-called night lock, the prisoner surprised an employee and held an “object” in front of him.

The prisoner said, "We're going out now."

The officer complied with this request out of fear for his life.

When an alarm was triggered, more employees were added.

After a gate was opened by another officer, the prisoner entered a courtyard.

The second officer was then taken hostage, said Hagemann.

Other colleagues positioned themselves and overpowered the prisoner when he was inattentive for a moment.

The head of the JVA did not comment specifically on the use of an object with which the prisoner is said to have threatened the employees.

There was a "gunshot-like noise," she said.

The item looked like something "homemade".

It is the task of the investigating authorities to clarify what the prisoner could have done with it.

The Halle assassin was sentenced to life imprisonment and subsequent preventive detention in December 2020.

On October 9, 2019, Yom Kippur, the highest Jewish holiday, he tried to storm the synagogue in Halle and cause a massacre.

When he failed to get to the site, he murdered two people near the synagogue.

dpa