A shooting in the central German town of Wächtersbach left a 26-year-old Eritrean wounded, with the shooter fleeing the scene.
On Monday afternoon, police found the “apparently lifeless” body of the suspected shooter in a car in the neighboring town of Biebergemünd. He shot himself in the head and later died in hospital.
Frankfurt state prosecutors’ spokesman Alexander Badle said that they are are currently working on the assumption of a very clear xenophobic motive, adding that the victim, currently in a stable condition following an operation, had apparently been chosen “because of his skin color,” and that the dead suspect appeared to have chosen him at random.
A search of the 55-year-old man’s home confirmed suspicions of a racist motive, a spokesman said.
Investigators found a letter apparently referring to the crime in the apartment, as well as three firearms (a semi-automatic handgun and two rifles, all legally owned). The suspected perpetrator had also recently sold another gun, the spokesman said, which has been tracked down and seized. Two more guns were found in the suspect’s car.
The incident happened near Kassel, scene of the killing in early June of the conservative politician Walter Lübcke. The main suspect in that case is Stephan E., a known neo-Nazi who is now in custody. Investigators also noted that the incident happened on the anniversary of the mass-murder of 77 people in Oslo and Utoya, Norway, in 2011, by far-right terrorist Anders Breivik.
