16-Year-Old Surrenders After Shots Fired at Police Officer in Göttingen

A European arrest warrant had previously been issued for the 16-year-old. According to the current state of the investigation, he is strongly suspected of having fired several shots from a live weapon during the clash between the two rival extended families in Göttingen city centre on Saturday evening at around 10:15 p.m. He is being investigated on suspicion of attempted manslaughter.

State of Investigation and Background

The alleged shooter had fled the scene. Whether the teenager had previously come to the attention of the police was not initially known. According to the investigation, the suspect's family originates from Kosovo; the 16-year-old himself was born in Germany.

The shots were fired directly on a pavement next to the Bundesstraße 27, which leads out of the city, at the Weender Tor between the Iduna Centre and a petrol station. The officers had been deployed to mediate a dispute between the two families. At the time of the crime, thousands of people were celebrating the "Night of Cultures" in the centre of Göttingen. The police stated that there had been no danger to the public at any time.

Searches and Manhunt

Göttingen's Police President Tanja Wulff-Bruhn expressed relief over the success of the manhunt. Previously, the police had searched and set up a tip-off portal to look for clues and witnesses. On Sunday evening, task forces searched three buildings in the Göttingen districts of Geismar and Weende, as well as in the municipality of Gieboldehausen in the Eichsfeld, and secured 40 mobile phones for analysis. On Monday, investigation teams and special forces had already searched two residential buildings in the vicinity of the suspect, one of them in Gieboldehausen. A tip-off portal, which was activated for the submission of private video and image material, was accessed more than 2,000 times, according to the authorities.

Various tips had been received by the police, which are currently still being evaluated. The Göttingen Police accept further tips at the telephone number (0551) 4 91 21 15. Marco Hansmann, head of the Göttingen Police Inspectorate, announced increased police presence in the city on Sunday.

Political Reactions

"Not only to protect the citizens in terms of public safety, but to strengthen their sense of security in light of this act," Hansmann explained the measure. Lower Saxony's Interior Minister Daniela Behrens (SPD) called the escalation of violence on Sunday "alarming and absolutely unacceptable." "Anyone who attacks a police officer in such a brutal manner despises the constitutional state and thereby attacks us all," she stated.

Diese Eskalation der Gewalt ist erschreckend und absolut inakzeptabel. Wer einen Polizisten auf solch brutaler Weise attackiert, verachtet den Rechtsstaat und greift damit uns alle an. There were also clear reactions from state politics. Wiard Siebels, parliamentary managing director of the SPD state parliamentary group, said on Monday: "We will never accept such acts." Alexander Saade, police policy spokesperson of the SPD state parliamentary group, stated: "The constitutional state must be able to assert itself everywhere – on our streets, in our cities, and against every form of organised crime and also against criminal clans."

Debate on Clan Crime

CDU state parliament member Carina Hermann called for effective controls, a strong police presence, and the consistent exploitation of existing powers. The CDU requested a special meeting of the Interior Committee for Tuesday. Michael Lühmann, interior policy spokesperson of the Greens state parliamentary group, however, urged restraint against premature conclusions: "Anyone who already believes they know what conclusions need to be drawn locally should first take a step back and let the police and public prosecutor's office do their work," he said.

The investigations into the exact course of events, the background, and the motive are still ongoing. It is also still unknown what the conflict was about and why the situation escalated. The Braunschweig Public Prosecutor's Office has taken over the case because the Central Office for Combating Clan Crime for the South-East Lower Saxony region is based there. The Lower Saxony Ministry of the Interior defines a clan as a criminal group connected by kinship and a shared ethnic origin.

In the criminological debate on the concept of clan crime, the Bremen criminologist Thomas Müller, who worked on organised crime at the Bremen Police Internal Security Service and studied criminology in parallel, has spoken out. He criticised the undifferentiated use of the term: "Man muss sich das mal vorstellen: Wenn man alle Müllers als potenziell kriminell ansieht und sie ständig überprüft, dann macht das etwas mit dem Bild, das Polizei und Gesellschaft von allen haben, die Müller heißen."

Outlook on the Investigations

The Göttingen Police announced that they would continue the investigations consistently and inform the public of significant progress. Tips from the population would continue to be received and evaluated, it was stated. With the arrest of the 16-year-old, the acute manhunt for the shooter is over – the legal and political processing of the incident, however, has only just begun.

The incident throws a spotlight on the question of how the police and judiciary in Lower Saxony deal with conflicts between extended families. The Central Office for Combating Clan Crime in Braunschweig has been pooling corresponding investigations for years. Police President Wulff-Bruhn emphasised that the success of the manhunt shows that the constitutional state remains capable of acting even in difficult situations.

For Göttingen city centre, the act represents a turning point: With the "Night of Cultures," a large city festival took place just a few metres from the crime scene, which, according to the police, continued without interruption. The investigators are following up on tips from the population that have been received via the online portal and by telephone. Whether further arrests or searches will follow was initially unclear.