DAccording to the investigators’ findings so far, the suspected “Reich citizen” who is said to have shot a police officer in Reutlingen is said to have owned numerous weapons legally. According to dpa information, 22 weapons were entered on his weapon ownership card.
Baden-Württemberg’s Minister of the Interior Thomas Strobl (CDU) urged the federal government to tighten gun laws quickly. Strobl, who was on site in Reutlingen after the escalated search on Wednesday, reported on Thursday in Stuttgart about a considerable, frightening and perverse arsenal of weapons that had been found in the building complex. “What I saw there, nobody really needs.”
Investigators continued to search the shooter’s home in Reutlingen on Thursday. The search is ongoing, said a spokeswoman for the federal prosecutor’s office in Karlsruhe on request. It is also about securing crime scene traces.
According to Strobl, the basement of the building was searched immediately after the incident on Wednesday, and now the investigators are looking at the shooter’s apartment. The man had expected the police officers with a gun, and during a shootout he shot an officer from the special operations team in the arm. The shooter is in custody, the federal prosecutor accuses him of multiple attempted murder.
The search on Wednesday was part of a larger raid in eight German states and Switzerland. It is related to the large-scale operation at the beginning of December against a “Reich Citizens” association that is said to have sought to overthrow the political system.