Aftermath of shots and knife attack Bonn police has strong presence at main station
BONN · The police are still searching for the unidentified man who fired a blank gun on Sunday in Bonn’s Hofgarten. There had been a knife attack in the vicinity shortly before. Police are patrolling the main station.
The man who is said to have fired shots from a blank gun near Kaisersplatz on Sunday afternoon was still on the run on Monday evening. Police are significantly increasing their presence around Bonn’s main station – also because of another crime that took place just an hour earlier a few hundred metres away. A 17-year-old man was slightly injured with a knife during a robbery at the rear of the station.
Around 5.15pm on Sunday, several shots were fired in a side street near the Kreuz Church, apparently with a blank gun. No one was injured. According to reports, a drugs dispute triggered the crime and police are investigating initial evidence.
Loutish behaviour, drug dealing and petty crime are a recurring topic among the residents of the surrounding streets – even more so since the drugs scene has lost a central meeting point at the Bonner Loch. During police checks in mid-April, three alleged drug dealers were arrested in the Hofgarten. The authorities are also committed to maintaining their concept of intervention and presence in the city centre for an indefinite period.
The shots caused anxiety at the Hofgarten on Sunday afternoon. Police received dozens of emergency calls. “There was widespread panic at the scene,” said police.
The police officers called out came across one of those involved at the scene. The 21-year-old confirmed the witness accounts and stated that the unknown man had pulled out a handgun during a dispute and had fired several times. A sniffer dog found the cartridge casings that evening. Police are continuing to assume the gun is most likely a blank pistol said police spokesman Robert Scholten on Monday morning.
The police searched the scene and the escape route witnesses said the suspect used for the weapon. The perpetrator is said to have fled towards an area containing dustbins for a nearby hotel in the Kaiserplatz area. From there he ran further towards the main station and then possibly down Prinz-Albert-Straße.
According to witnesses, the fugitive is said to be between 1.80 and 1.90 metres tall. He has a dark skin tone and was wearing a black hooded sweater. He was also wearing a light coloured baseball cap.
Anyone with information should call police on 0228/150.
(Original text: Rüdiger Franz. Translation: kc)
