Recreational hunter shoots homeless woman
Following the murder of a homeless woman on Wednesday morning in Iserlohn, the 29-year-old suspect was brought before the remand judge on Thursday. The judge issued an arrest warrant for murder. This was announced by the responsible public prosecutor's office. The investigating authorities are treating premeditation as the defining characteristic of the murder.
Candles at the crime scene in Iserlohn
It is a sorrowful sight when one looks at the staircase where the homeless woman was murdered.
Candles flicker in quiet remembrance, reflecting the sympathy of the people. The homeless woman had only been in Iserlohn (North Rhine-Westphalia) for a few months and had visited various support facilities. In a fire, Marina S. († 57) lost her livelihood and ended up on the streets of Iserlohn,German media report.
Suspect possessed hunting licence and weapons
The suspect holds a firearms ownership card and a hunting licence. Several weapons were seized from him. Despite suspicions of a mental illness, the recreational hunter legally possessed several weapons.
«We have no indications so far that the victim and the accused knew each other,» said prosecutor Miriam Polk. The homeless woman had been killed with two gunshots to the head.
29-year-old recreational hunter arrested
The body of the 57-year-old had been discovered at around 3:45 a.m. by two teenagers at the alleged crime scene at Poth. Immediate investigations by the criminal police had led to the apartment of a 29-year-old recreational hunter on Mendener Strasse.
The community is shaken by the loss of a woman who had to endure the cold weather and the insecurity of life on the streets. IG Wild beim Wild systematically documents crime in connection with recreational hunting .
Further articles
More recent hunting accidents and documented criminal offences involving recreational hunters can be found here:Chronicle of hunting accidents and criminal offences on the abolition of hunting as well as in the Chronicle of hunting accidents in Germany, Austria and Switzerland at PETA.
More on the subject of recreational hunting: In the dossier Poaching and hunting crime in Switzerland we document cases, legal questions and recurring patterns. The scientific evidence is presented in the overview Studies on the Effects of Recreational Hunting.
The position of IG Wild beim Wild: IG Wild beim Wild rejects recreational hunting. Our model is the canton of Geneva, which has managed without recreational hunting since 1974: without hunting seasons, without hunting dogs, without driven hunts, without high seats, without the animal cruelty and crime that go hand in hand with hunting season elsewhere. What has worked there for over fifty years disproves every position paper by JagdSchweiz. An association that bases its policy on claims it refutes in its own documents is not a professional organisation, but a factory for misinformation.
