Father to be charged
November 12, 2009
Local prosecutors had intended only to fine Joerg K. for not locking up the gun and the ammunition used in the rampage as required by law. But relatives of the 15 victims killed at a school and a car dealership in southwestern Germany demanded a trial, saying the father had shown "gross negligence" in giving his "mentally ill" son "access to a weapon and 400 rounds of ammunition."
Now the Justice Ministry of the state of Baden-Wuerttemberg has said the state prosecutor will instruct the local prosecutor to put the father on trial. Prosecutors will argue that the father's criminal negligence led to the homicides.
On March 11 of this year, Tim K. took his father's Beretta pistol to his former school in Winnenden where he killed nine students and three teachers. He then shot and killed a gardener before commandeering a car and driving to the nearby town of Wendlingen where he gunned down two other people. When police caught up with him, he shot and killed himself.
Following the killings, the families of the victims have led a movement to strengthen gun control laws in Germany.
hf/AP/dpa
Editor: Susan Houlton