A day after a gunman opened fire at a center meant to shelter mothers and their children, German investigators have filled in the grim outline of what happened — and why.
What we now know
A gunman opened fire shortly before noon Monday at a youth-welfare facility on Dankersstrasse in Stade, a city of about 50,000 some 45 kilometers west of Hamburg, PBS NewsHour reported. Five people were killed at the scene and a sixth died later in a hospital, bringing the toll to six, with about ten others wounded, some critically, Al Jazeera reported. The facility provides temporary housing for pregnant women and young mothers with children; victims included staff and employees of the local youth-welfare office, according to German media accounts.
A custody dispute, police say
Police identified the main suspect as a 45-year-old German man from the Hanover region who, investigators said, had come to the center for a scheduled appointment connected to the custody of his three-month-old daughter before opening fire. Lüneburg police described the attack as an "extended familial tragedy" driven by personal grievances, and said they had ruled out terrorism, organized crime and political extremism. The suspect had a prior record for making threats and did not hold a valid firearms license, police said.
The arrests
The suspect fled by car with a 55-year-old woman said to be close to his family and alleged to have driven; officers ended the chase by shooting out a tire and took both into custody, CNN reported. A third person, described as the suspect's wife, was detained for questioning. Officers had reached the scene about ten minutes after the shooting began, and a large cordon sealed off the area for much of the afternoon. Authorities had not publicly released the names of the victims or the suspect, and the investigation into the precise sequence of events was continuing.
A country unsettled again
Mass shootings remain rare in Germany, which has some of Europe's strictest gun laws, and the attack drew national attention. The motive, though characterized by police as family-related, remains under formal investigation, and no charges had been publicly filed by Monday evening.
