Shock runs deep

Deeply shocked after a bloody attack in the Mühlviertel region

The fatal shots were fired in this house.

(Bild: Markus Schütz, Krone KREATIV)

At the weekend, the bloody deed with two fatalities caused great shock and grief in Oberkappel, a market town of 750 inhabitants in the Mühlviertel region. On Saturday morning, a 44-year-old German shot a 51-year-old man from Oberkappel and killed himself shortly afterwards.

The 44-year-old German Benjamin R. had rung the doorbell of the victim Kurt H. (51) in Oberkappel at around 8.40 a.m. on Saturday. The perpetrator's wife opened the door and there was a brief conversation between the separated couple. Immediately afterwards, the 44-year-old is said to have shot at the Upper Austrian with a pistol and fled back to Germany in his green Suzuki Jimny.

Six shots fired
The perpetrator fired a total of six shots at his victim, said a police spokesman. An indication of how furiously jealous the German must have been. The emergency doctor was unable to save the 51-year-old, who died from his serious injuries.

Body of the perpetrator found
The shooter fled in his car in the direction of his home on the Bavarian side of the border. After a search lasting almost two hours, the body of the 44-year-old was found next to his car in a forest near his home.

The two towns are barely ten minutes apart in the Upper Austrian-Bavarian border region. The two children of the couple, who were about to divorce - aged 14 and 18 - were at the father's home in Bavaria during the crime. The family is being looked after by the crisis intervention team, the police said.