Act of violence in Gosen-Neu Zittau: victims were 18-year-old schoolgirl and 30-year-old educator
Following a fatal attack at a school near Berlin, police have revealed details about the victims. A 19-year-old German man is in custody.
Police identify victims of attack at school in Oder-Spree district
Following the fatal attack at a school in Gosen-Neu Zittau, a town in the Brandenburg district of Oder-Spree, police disclosed further details about the two victims on Friday. According to n-tv, the man killed was a 30-year-old kindergarten educator who worked on the same grounds as the primary and secondary school.
Earlier reports in several media outlets had referred to a caretaker — a characterisation that police had never officially confirmed. The Märkische Allgemeine also reported that the man was killed as he attempted to stop the perpetrator. This information too remains without official confirmation from the authorities.
According to police, the female victim is an 18-year-old. According to media reports, she is said to be the ex-girlfriend of the suspect. RBB described her as a schoolgirl — police have not commented on this so far.
Both were killed on Thursday. A 19-year-old German man was provisionally arrested and is in police custody. The investigating authorities have so far made no statements about the exact sequence of events, the motive, or the weapon used. In a statement, police called on witnesses to come forward with information about the incident.
Police classified the incident as a relationship-motivated crime. Brandenburg's parliamentary president Ulrike Liedtke went further and described the act as a "cowardly femicide that has no place in our society". Femicide is defined as the killing of women because of their gender; the most common form is killing by a (former) partner.
On the Docemus campus, which is home to both a private school and a public primary school, an emergency response team from the education authority is currently in operation. The Brandenburg education ministry stated that school psychologists are supporting pupils and teachers. Already on Thursday, eight to nine representatives of emergency pastoral care spoke with those affected on site.
"We are trying to be a safe space," said Stefan Baier of Emergency Pastoral Care Brandenburg in the RBB Special. Regular classes at the primary school did not take place on Friday; the children received psychological support. The education authority immediately offered support to the private operator, according to the ministry.
A day after the incident, many questions remain unanswered — including about the exact sequence of events and the background to the act.
Source: n-tv