A man is said to have shot his own brother with a crossbow. There was a dispute in the family about the placement of the mother, who was in need of care. There are still other problems to be faced in court.
When it comes to accommodating their mother, who needs care, a dispute between brothers escalates. A 59-year-old has been charged in the Ulm Regional Court because he threatened two of his brothers with a crossbow at their parents’ home in Schlierbach (Göppingen district) and shot the younger (55) boy, injuring him.
At the start of the trial on Tuesday, the 59-year-old had his defense attorney explain that he only wanted to scare his brothers, not kill them. Had he wanted to kill the two, he could have hit the house from behind without being seen, the man argued in his statement. He made a conscious decision to approach the house from the front.
After the statement, a recording of a call to the police was played in court. During the phone call, the accused reported the crime to the police. In the next quarter of an hour there will be deaths, it can be heard. “If you come earlier, that’s fine.” When an officer on the phone asked what the accused was up to, he explained bluntly: “I shoot people with a crossbow.” The accused had said in his statement: If he would have wanted to kill if he hadn’t called the police first.
The escalation was preceded by a lengthy argument among the four brothers about the accommodation of their common mother who needed care and “everything from the last 30 years”, as the threatened younger brother described. The accused had lived with his mother and another fourth brother in his parents’ house. According to the public prosecutor’s office, the 55-year-old and the 60-year-old had asked the accused to vacate the house within three and a half hours by means of a power of attorney. The dispute then escalated.
According to investigations, the 59-year-old threatened the two brothers who did not live in the house with a crossbow and asked them to leave the property. The older one followed the request, while the younger one went into the house. There the accused is said to have shot his younger brother, who was standing behind a glass door. He was injured and suffered a hematoma, among other things. The verdict is expected in mid-March.
