Man gets life imprisonment over fatal workplace shooting in Germany

A man who shot and killed two colleagues at a factory in south-western Germany earlier this year has been found guilty and sentenced to life imprisonment.

The Heilbronn Regional Court determined that the crime was particularly serious, meaning that a release after 15 years is unlikely.

The charges against the German man included two counts of murder and attempted murder.

The court heard that the 53-year-old entered the factory at the company’s premises in Bad Friedrichshall, north of Heilbronn, in early January.

Wearing a mask, he fired a total of 23 shots at his colleagues.

Two brothers aged 49 and 44 died, and another man was critically injured. The family business manufactures precision gears.

The man, who had been on trial since mid-July, remained silent throughout the proceedings. The prosecution and joint plaintiffs had demanded a life sentence for double murder, citing the particular severity of the crime. The court agreed.

The defence, on the other hand, had pleaded for acquittal or, alternatively, acquittal and the defendant’s placement in a psychiatric hospital. The lawyer argued that the evidence against the alleged shooter was insufficient to convict him.

The man is said to have been jealous of one of the brothers because, as head of the working group, he was responsible for assigning colleagues to factory machines.

He had been told to give up a machine he had been working on to the other brother after that man’s return to work after a period of sickness.