© Domingos Oliveira / RTL
Witnesses of the double homicide in Niederkorn on Monday spoke to our colleagues from RTL 5Minutes about the shooter's impassivity, but also the neighbourhood's concerns in the wake of the shocking incident.
A 62-year-old woman and her 54-year-old husband were killed in the terrible shooting on Monday in Rue des Trevires in Niederkorn. Now, only a few white crosses remain. The crosses were drawn on the asphalt of the street, straddling a parking space and the pavement. When the police arrived, the two bodies lay less than four metres apart, outside the home of the alleged shooter, their 74-year-old neighbour, who was brought before an examining magistrate on Tuesday morning.
"The shooter fired first at the husband, and the wife ran away to the other side," according to Paula (not her real name), a neighbour who lives a few houses up the street. What she mistook for the sound of rubbish bins being collected was actually gunfire. The incident took place "right in front of her eyes", while she was "praying in the living room". She witnessed much of the scene from her window.
Read also: Shooter, 74, taken into custody: Two dead in shock Niederkorn shooting on Monday
"There were three shots: one for the man. And two for the woman," testified Marco, a neighbour who has lived across the street from the suspected shooter "for twenty years." When he returned home after picking up his newspaper from his letterbox and greeting his neighbour – with whom he "has always gotten along well" – Marco twitched when he heard the first shot. The sound is all too familiar to Marco, who used to be in the military.
At the second shot, the pensioner "went straight out" and saw the 54-year-old husband "lying there" on the road in front of his driveway. At that point, "I saw the third shot when he fired a second shot at the wife from close range!"
Paula spotted the female victim trying to flee and "saw the gunman loading his weapon with a big red cartridge. And he shot the woman." She immediately "called the police who told me not to go out". Down the street, a local man arrived who stopped the 74-year-old shooter and shouted at him: "Sir, can you explain what you are doing?"
The bizarre scene that ensued left both witnesses speechless. "The gunman left his house as if nothing had happened and took a mop to clean the three steps in front of his house," Paula said.
"He just kept cleaning"
"He just kept cleaning while the two bodies were there on the ground, then he came back with a broom," Marco observed. "That's not normal!" the pensioner exclaimed.
The two witnesses then describe how the man was apprehended by police officers from the Special Police Unit who were on duty and waiting for him to come out of his garage, which had been left open. "He handed himself in to the police. He came out. He raised his arms. Five police officers jumped on him and handcuffed him. And that was it," Marco sums up. When the suspect lifted his hands, Paula noted that "he was still holding his broom."
The shooting occurred near the end of the cul-de-sac on Rue des Trévires and could have been the result of a long-standing feud between the suspect, who lives with his wife, and the couple who lived on the second floor of the adjoining house.
"They had conflicts", Paula states, without going into further detail. Marco acknowledges that "there were difficulties" between these neighbours. As far as he can remember, his 74-year-old neighbour "was always nice". The other two "were noisy and problematic" and he dismisses the issue with a wave of his hand.
The train passes behind the houses on the normally quiet Rue des Trévires. A child cycles past on his bike. The police are still at the victims' homes. Despite the almost spring-like end of the day, the atmosphere is heavy.
