Germany: Child killed by schoolmate
January 23, 2018
A 15-year-old pupil at a school in Lünen in the western German state of North Rhine-Westphalia stabbed to death a fellow classmate, aged 14, early Tuesday morning.
Police said the suspect had confessed to the killing, which sent shock waves through the community. On Wednesday, state prosecutors announced that they were filing murder charges against the teen.
Read more: Is juvenile detention an effective deterrent?
The suspect apparently thought the 14-year-old victim had cast a dirty look at his mother, police and prosecutors said.
The incident occurred at the Käthe Kollwitz school shortly after 8 a.m. local time (0700 UTC).
The school, which has just under 1,000 students, was subsequently evacuated and closed.
The suspect was known to police as aggressive, authorities said
He was a former student at the Käthe Kollwitz school, but was later moved to another school due to behavioral problems.
That school also had trouble dealing with the unruly teenager, who on the day of the murder returned to Käthe Kollwitz with his mother to meet with a social worker about rejoining the school.
Mayor 'bewildered'
The mayor of Lünen Jürgen Kleine-Frauns said he was "horrified and bewildered" by the killing.
"This awful incident has deeply affected me," he continued. "We send our deepest sympathies and condolences to the victim's family."
A minute's silence was held on Wednesday in memory of the young victim at all Lünen schools and the city hall.
Youth crime remains a major issue in Germany's most populous state, despite repeated pledges by local ministers to combat the trend.
In 2016, one-in-five crimes were committed by individuals younger than 21, making it the second consecutive year that the rate had risen.
North Rhine-Westphalia's former Interior Minister Ralf Jäger described the alarming rise in youth crime as "one of the most important duties of the NRW police."
cw,dm/rt (dpa, AFP)