The prosecutor’s office calls for a 20-year prison sentence for the accused who shot two people on the street in October 2022.

If she had to rewrite the accusation, she would do so with the title ‘War between neighbours’, stated the representative of the prosecutor’s office. She also reconststructed a few details of the day of the crime, 17 October 2022, when two people aged 62 and 54 lost their lives. All because of a disagreement between neighbours, which had become heated and thus escalated fatally.

She recounts how the then 74-year-old accused man, who was home alone, went upstairs to his attic to fetch his shotgun. He had loaded it in the garage and proceeded to hide it in a bin. Afterwards he waited for the neighbours, he was so angry at, to come out so he could shoot them. First from a distance of four meters from his driveway. Then, he fired shots again directly next to his victims, who were already laying on the floor, fatally wounded. Five shots were fired in total. “He wanted to make sure they would not get up again. He said ‘here, take this’. He let loose of all his anger. He executed them cold-bloodedly”, says the representative of the prosecutor’s office.

She gestured towards the facts that were clearly laid out in front of them. The cameras, which the accused had set up to spy on the neighbourhood, had recorded everything. Therefore, it is clear how the situation came about and what happened. The two victims of the accused had turned his life into a living hell. Among other things, they continuously obstructed the signal of his electric garden gate with a transmitter. A couple of other neighbours had admitted how the couple had bullied them too. However, the prosecutor emphasised afterwards what had already been noted in the defence: “This is not about a trial between neighbours, but about the accused who took two lives.”

Nevertheless, one should consider the statements of the accused, who always admitted to what had occurred. He told the court about his anger, frustration, and his despair. The public prosecutor had asked the court for a reduction of the punishment since a psychiatric valuation had come to that conclusion. On 17 October 2022, the man had looked for a final way out, which one might be able to understand emotionally, yet not rationally and it cannot be excused at all. Additionally, it cannot be said that he expressed honest regret.

The accused was given a platform again on Friday. As an answer to the question whether he regretted his deed, he told the prosecutor’s office representative that he was sad about the situation. He had suffered under the situation for five years, which led to his mind closing off. When he was questioned again whether he was sad about the people he had killed, the elderly man added that he truly regretted it, and he was not happy about what he had done. He apologised for being in this situations, but added that there is nothing he can do anymore.

The defence of the civil section reproached the accused of not expressing honest regret. There was also criticism of the previous days of trial because it focused too much on the cruelty of the couple, and not on the cold-blooded murder.

This Friday, almost 20 civil sections requested damage compensations. The civil sections included the children of the victims, their grandchildren, siblings, partners of the siblings, aunts, uncles and many more. The majority of the demands come out to €50,000 each. The son of the deceased woman, although he had not been in contact with her for 20 years, is said to have suffered extremely under his mother’s loss. Therefore a compensation of € 133,000 was demanded, according to the defence.