Six people shot dead in Stade youth welfare facility; custody dispute suspected as motive

A long-simmering custody conflict

The suspect, a 45-year-old man of Turkish nationality born in Germany, had been embroiled in a dispute over the care of his three-month-old daughter. The infant, together with her 34-year-old mother, had been placed in a mother-child residential group in Stade by order of the family court in Neustadt am Rübenberge. The court had also withdrawn the parents' right to decide on medical treatment.

Earlier this year, the baby was diagnosed with shaken baby syndrome at the Hannover Medical School (MHH). On 22 April, the father became aggressive toward the treating physicians and verbally threatened them, prompting a criminal investigation by the Hannover public prosecutor's office. An email he sent on 5 May did not meet the legal threshold for a threat, and that part of the case was closed.

The attack in the facility

On Monday, the man arrived for a scheduled care-plan meeting at the facility. Because he was considered aggressive, the youth welfare office had sent three employees from Hannover – two women and one man – to join the meeting together with three local staff members from the Stade institution. During the conversation, the 45-year-old opened fire with a pistol he had purchased at Berlin's Bahnhof Zoo. He did not hold a firearms licence.

Four women and one man died at the scene; a sixth victim, a man, succumbed to his injuries in hospital a few hours later. The mother and the baby were not harmed. After the shooting, the suspect fled in a Mercedes coupé driven by a 65-year-old woman, described as the child's godmother from Bremen. He shot at pursuing officers until he ran out of ammunition and was then arrested.

Victims and a shattered sense of safety

All six victims were professionals working in child protection. Three were from the youth welfare office of the Hannover Region; the other three worked at the Stade facility. Their deaths have shaken the community and prompted a wave of mourning across Lower Saxony.

During a memorial service in Hanover's Marktkirche on Wednesday, Stadtsuperintendent Rainer Müller-Brandes said the attack had turned a place of refuge into a crime scene.

A place of protection became a crime scene. When those who protect are endangered and those who help are threatened, something fundamental is shaken.

Hannover's mayor Belit Onay, speaking at the same service, said the country had been left in shock.

People who wanted to help others were murdered. We cannot answer the question of why. Despite the pain and disbelief, we must stand together and not let hatred break out.

Investigation and legal steps

A special homicide commission has taken over the investigation. The Stade public prosecutor's office is treating the killings as six counts of murder, citing the criteria of treachery and base motives. The suspect is in pre-trial detention.

The custody dispute itself is still before the Higher Regional Court in Celle, where both parents have appealed the lower court's emergency ruling. The court will now decide on parental rights against the backdrop of the killings.

A spokeswoman for the Lower Saxony Ministry of Social Affairs, Lea Karrasch, noted that it is routine for such care-plan meetings to take place in the facility itself rather than at a police station or court. Police are occasionally called in when a threat is anticipated, but that did not happen here. Karrasch said there would now have to be a discussion about whether additional safety protocols are needed for youth welfare workers.

If the youth welfare office knows about threats, that is of course taken into account. Whether further regulations on security precautions are necessary beyond that will certainly have to be discussed.

The suspect's possible accomplices – the child's mother and the driver – remain under investigation. Police are continuing to collect witness photographs and videos, and a hotline has been set up for tips.

A broader reckoning

Former federal family minister Anne Spiegel, now social affairs director for the Hannover Region, attended the memorial service visibly moved, wiping away tears with a handkerchief. The attack has renewed debate in Germany about the safety of social workers who operate in potentially volatile family situations. Müller-Brandes said at the service that it was too early for explanations.

Today is too soon for explanations.

The memorial book and a candle corner in the Marktkirche remain open for the public, and hundreds had already gathered the previous evening in Stade's St. Wilhadi Church. The Hannover Region said it was "deeply shocked and stunned" by the loss of its employees, who had travelled almost 200 kilometres to Stade expecting trouble at the meeting.