Hunting licence: Suspected recreational hunter murders 11 people

In the Hessian city of Hanau, nine people have been killed and six injured.

Police found the suspected shooter and another person dead in a flat. Before that, the killer had also killed his 72-year-old mother. A confession letter and a video are currently being analysed. According to police sources and tagesschau.de, the man held a hunting licence and a corresponding weapons ownership card. Ammunition and magazines are said to have been found in his vehicle. He is also said to have been an active sport shooter.

Shots were reportedly fired at two different locations at around 10 p.m. on Wednesday evening, police reported. Nine people were shot dead. According to initial reports, the perpetrator is the 43-year-old German national Tobis Rathjen.

A spokesperson said it could be «a relationship-related crime or an act committed at random». All of the victims, except the perpetrator's mother, had a migration background. Five of them were Turkish nationals. The remaining victims came from Poland, Bulgaria, Romania and Bosnia. Some also held German passports.

In the Heumarkt area, three people were reportedly killed and at least one person seriously injured. A police helicopter circled over the city.

Another crime scene was reportedly at Kurt-Schumacher-Platz. It is located about two and a half kilometres from Heumarkt in the Kesselstadt district. According to police, five people died there.

Bullet casings found in front of a döner kebab stand

According to a dpa reporter, cartridge cases were found outside a döner kebab shop on Heumarkt. The traces were marked with spray paint. Police cordoned off a wide area around the crime scene on Heumarkt. Officers armed with submachine guns secured the surrounding area.

People stood near the areas cordoned off with barrier tape, some of them crying. Police asked curious onlookers to leave the area and return to their homes and the local premises.

According to a report by Hessischer Rundfunk, a shisha bar on Heumarkt was attacked first. Eyewitnesses reportedly spoke of eight to nine shots.

Shots are also said to have been fired again in a shisha bar on Karlsbader Strasse in the Kesselstadt district. Police initially did not confirm the details in the media report.

Hanau is located in the Main-Kinzig district about 20 kilometres east of Frankfurt/Main and has around 100,000 inhabitants. 

Wild animals have had a right-wing terror problem for decades

According to information from security circles, a letter claiming responsibility has been found.

The man was convinced that he was being monitored in all conceivable phases and areas of life – by “an organisation that operates on the basis of an intelligence service, but does not officially appear under any name.”

His “essay” also contains various far-right and xenophobic statements – in his view, it is not enough to deport certain ethnic groups, since their very existence “is in itself a fundamental error” (typical hunter mindset – see for example foxes or Neozoa– editor's note). A number of peoples must “be completely wiped out”, including half of Asia, various ethnic groups from North Africa and Israel.

Anyone who obtains a hunting licence always receives two things: a licence to kill and a licence to become dim-witted. Many recreational hunters are gun fanatics and active in shooting clubs. On the side, recreational hunters in Germany also commit a strikingly large number of violent crimes, of which only the tip of the iceberg appears in the media. A look at hunting statistics also reveals the full extent of the culture of violence within this milieu.

Read a selection of reports on deaths caused by hunting accidents and crimes involving hunters' weapons in Germany in 2019: Link