Posted on 03/15/2008 1:52:07 AM PDT by SolidWood
BERLIN (Reuters) - A U.S. soldier stationed in southern Germany was shot dead by police after threatening an ex-girlfriend and then going on the run armed with an assault rifle, authorities said on Friday.
The 30-year old, who was serving in the 2nd, "Dagger," brigade of the U.S. 1st Infantry Division, broke into the woman's house late on Thursday, threatened her and tied her up, police in the Bavarian region of Unterfranken said.
She was able to free herself and alerted the police, who began a search using a commando unit and a helicopter equipped with thermal imaging equipment.
Officers found the soldier several hundred meters from the woman's house and tried to arrest him but he threatened them with the semi-automatic rifle and was shot, police said.
He died in hospital early on Friday, according to a statement from the "Dagger" Brigade Chain of Command.
"The Dagger Brigade along with the United States Army Europe takes incidents of this nature extremely seriously and will continue to work with the German authorities to maintain community safety," the statement said.
The name of the soldier was being withheld until his next of kin had been informed, it added.
German police said there was no indication that officers had acted illegally and prosecutors were not planning to open an investigation into the marksmen.
"The officers had to assume that the suspect was going to fire on them with the weapon," a police statement said.
(Reporting by Iain Rogers, editing by Mark Trevelyan)
Um....well.....we do have US military bases in Germany.
This is indeed, very sad.
WE are in THEIR country. When in any foreign country, you must respect the laws and the authorities thereof.
Would you feel the same way if a German soldier did this on OUR soil?
Just a related question....weren’t there German commandos at Waco, back in 1993? Does anyone else know anything about such reports?
There's nothing like the sight of a cop armed with a sub-machine gun strolling the concourse of the airport in Frankfurt to disabuse one of any such notion.
I have a friend who's worked with the Polizei. They're pretty effective with nightsticks, too. And the ACLU does not have a following in Germany.
It changed significantly around 2000. I left in 2001 and was one of the last people in my unit allowed to keep my weapons at home because I was leaving right about the same time the ban on GIs keeping privately owned weapons kicked in.
Very sad indeed..but the headline was a bit misleading. I was thinking, unprovoked attack for a second. PS: I’m not the thread title police, just an observation.
What kind of crock is this? Since when is the US at war with the complete ME? Since when did the US start it? Remember 9/11? Do you suggest that getting rid of Taliban and Saddam is a catastrophe? You are new here... I take it you are not American, are you?
Yeah, it’s the same in the U.S. Army, too. He either took it during the day, like you say, or the armorer didn’t actually do a barrel count but said he did.
“Germany had serious problems with leftist terrorist in the 1970s.”
Baader Meinhof was the big problem when I was there.
What’s the Exit Strategy from Germany?
Very sad. Sounds like the guy had some serious issues. I’m just glad he didn’t kill the woman involved.
Quagmire.
What’s a “eunic”?
Most ex-GI’s I know said you don’t mess around with German cops.
How true! There were no cries to bring me home during the almost 13 years I spent there.... I'm glad- what an experience. Though, I didn't go on any shooting-sprees.;-)
Its one of the earlier Programming Languages.
Definitely not. I can´t see where I should have expressed that. But global problems can be best solved when they´re not ignored or played down. I expect from a US president to push for reasonable solutions, and to be honest, President Bush has disappointed me with regard to Iran lately.
Its Germany, would you want a dozen foreign military police units running around in America with guns taking care of their problems?
Hats off to the Germans for handling it, we owe them an apology for having an unstable service man in their homeland.
Actually, it was most likely his assigned service weapon. He may have had it signed out of the arms room for cleaning and then slipped off base without permission when no one was looking.
Not hard to do at all. Most would never do it for fear of getting caught and the rather severe consequences that would follow. He obviously did not care about that.
They have them and use them. Most cops carry a 9mm semi-auto pistol on their hips and a fully-automatic weapon like the UZI or an MP5 in their car.
When I was in Germany (80-83), the rule was never to mess with the German police. Present them with an armed threat and they will kill you. No ACLU in Duetchland.
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