Seven nerve-wracking hours for the police and Cobra forces on Tuesday evening in Lower Austria: As reported, a 48-year-old – a police officer by profession – holed himself up in his apartment building in Asparn ad Zaya, shots were heard. After hours of negotiations, the man lost consciousness late in the evening – he had consumed alcohol and medication.
The trigger for the action was a family dispute. The man, who works for the Vienna State Police Headquarters and legally owns pistols, then holed up in his apartment building. “Police from the Mistelbach district drove in immediately and carried out security measures,” said chief inspector Johann Baumschlager. The 48-year-old threatened to shoot intervening officials. Due to the assumed dangerousness of the suspect, the Cobra task force, the negotiation group and the rapid intervention group (SIG) and the standby unit (BE) were called in. “Shots were fired in the house” Specially trained officials then contacted the 48-year-old by telephone in the evening hours. Negotiations, which lasted several hours, took their course. “During the talks, shots were also fired in the house,” Baumschlager noted. The object in which the accused was alone was meanwhile surrounded. After about seven hours, the Cobra gained access to the house – after the executive had no longer been in contact with the officer. The man was then found unconscious in the building. He was taken to the Mistelbach State Hospital. The public prosecutor’s office in Korneuburg meanwhile ordered an arrest. Baumschlager emphasized that the emergency services had acted in a “highly concentrated and professional manner”. Furthermore, the spokesman was “glad that the official act was ended without bloodshed for everyone involved”.
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