Negotiation – Two women shot: Process start in Salzburg
The then 51-year-old from Salzburg drove at 10:30 p.m. to the family home where the 50-year-old lived. First, there is said to have been a verbal argument with the mother, who, like the brother of the 50-year-old, was apparently against the relationship between the two. The mother insulted him massively, also called him a house thief, and tried to box him out of the house. The accused said he pulled his gun. According to the indictment, he fired eleven shots at close range from his 7.65 mm Glock pistol, which he had legally owned.
Three shots hit the mother in the head and seven shots hit the daughter in the upper body. A shot misses. Prosecutor Elena Haslinger explained that the accused even reloaded the gun, but because the loading jammed, he was no longer able to fire any more shots. When the 50-year-old was already lying on the ground, the man shot her in the face.
The prosecutor spoke of an execution, a planned settlement and an “unprecedented crime”. The defendant drove to the house, heavily armed, got out of the car with a fully loaded firearm and two extra magazines, waited for her and finally fired the shots.
The two women who bled to death. Even before the police, the hitherto blameless Salzburger and father of two children found no explanation for the crime. He claimed to have “idolized” the 50-year-old. His defense attorney Andreas Schweitzer said “it was an emotional explosion that led to this insane act”. It was not a planned murder or execution, but “a kind of overkill”.
The defendant said that the defendant’s emotions had accumulated due to the conflict with the mother and brother of the 50-year-old. His client was repeatedly confronted with discrediting statements. “He was described as a social parasite, as a good-for-nothing” who was only after the fortune and the house of the 50-year-old with whom he had been in a relationship since November 2020. But since mother and brother were against it, the two finally only met in secret. The accused himself told the presiding judge Philipp Grosser about meetings in parking lots in front of shopping centers and supermarkets and also about nightly meetings in the house of the later victim. “She left the patio door open for me.”
In court, the accused apologized to the victim’s family for the crime. “I’m very sorry about the whole thing. Yes, I shot. I was totally beside myself in the situation, I felt beside my body.” The Salzburger then fled in his car. He was arrested on May 6 at 4:30 a.m. in Abersee am Wolfgangsee after confessing to an ex-partner on a cell phone, confronting the cobra and previously announcing suicide. Officers found two loaded firearms and 106 cartridges that he was legally in possession of. Because of the dangerousness and personality disorder of the man attested in court reports, which the public prosecutor’s office requested, admission to an institution for mentally abnormal but responsible offenders.
The prosecutor also addressed the conflicts between the brother of the killed 50-year-old, the mother and the accused at the trial. “The animosity has steadily increased.” The accused is also said to have stalked the woman. On the day of the bloody act, he sent her three emails that went unanswered. Then in the evening he waited until she returned to her own house from her mother’s house across the way. Before that, he drank five to six cans of beer at a nearby lake.
When he met his girlfriend again, “she was happy to see me. We hugged and kissed in the front building,” the accused told the judge. Suddenly the front door flew open and his mother came in, who verbally abused him. “I have no explanation as to why I shot my love,” Salzburg emphasized again.
The disputes with the family of the 50-year-old and the accused, who last worked as a security officer in Tyrol, including the mutual accusations are also on record. During a clarifying conversation about the trigger in front of the police, the woman is said to have said that she wanted to let the relationship with the Salzburger rest. Authorities provided that the man agreed and said he would stay away from the woman and her brother. All those involved in the conversation are said to have declared that they would refrain from (further) reporting.
The defense attorney, who is also a professional detective and president of the Austrian Detective Association, also noted that the brother should have tried to badmouth his client not only to his sister but also to other people.
The trial is scheduled to take place on Wednesday and Thursday.