Violent crime is nearly unheard of in the villages snuggled between rolling meadows and medieval castles of Germany’s northern Bavaria. So, on Friday, when a gunman in a convertible allegedly shot two people dead in a drive-by shooting spree, jaws dropped.
“In a town with 5,500 residents, where we’ve always lived in tranquillity, we only know situations like this from television shows,” Siegfried Hess, mayor of Leutershausen told regional news site nordbayern.de.
Police apprehended the gunman but not before he fired upon or threatened at least four people with his gun, Middle Franconia Police said.
The suspect, driving a silver Mercedes, first shot dead a woman in the hamlet of Leutershausen-Tiefenthal, police said. He then allegedly headed to the village of Rammersdorf, where he fatally shot a man on a bicycle.
In addition, he fired at a farmer and threatened a motorist with a gun. Those victims appear to be unhurt, police said.
Middle Franconia Police unleashed nearly its entire force in patrol cars, a helicopter and a canine unit in the search for the gunman, nordbayern.de reported.
The suspect pulled into a gas station in a nearby village and ran inside its convenience store waving a gun, the news site reported. Employees subdued the suspect, bound him up with cable fixers and waited for police to arrive.