A man used an excavator to destroy a construction company’s fleet of vehicles plus some police cars. The victim is said to have worked for the company in question.
Police in the German town of Tauberbischofsheim shot and killed an excavator driver on New Year’s Eve afternoon. The 38-year-old had stolen the vehicle in the Franconian town of Grünsfeld (Main-Tauber district) and destroyed at least five cars, three lorries and six excavators on the premises of a construction company. He then continued his excavator drive along the main road towards Tauberbischofsheim and rammed civilian vehicles and four patrol cars. Three police officers who tried to stop the man with loudspeaker announcements were slightly injured.
After a 52-minute chase, the man was stopped in the industrial area in Tauberbischofsheim by gunfire. The media counted at least twelve bullet holes or exit holes in the driver’s cab of the excavator. Officers then tried unsuccessfully to resuscitate the seriously injured victim.
So far, the police do not believe that the crime was politically motivated. The deceased is believed to be a former employee of the construction company from whose premises he stole the excavator. According to the Public Prosecutor’s Office, he was dismissed around a year ago. The man’s eight-kilometre journey ended at a car showroom, which is said to belong to the same company. There, the 38-year-old used the excavator to smash a shop window of the company headquarters, behind which two Porsches were parked. The demolition is said to have caused damage totalling millions.
On Platform X, the police initially wrote of a ‘suspected amok drive’ and then of a ‘driver running amok’. However, this was no longer mentioned in the press release published later. The police and public prosecutor’s office now want to investigate what drove the man to commit the offence and how he was able to start the vehicle.
The authorities are looking for witnesses and injured parties. To this end, the police have set up an online portal where images and video files can be uploaded. Videos already circulating on the internet show a yellow excavator driving past a petrol station through Tauberbischofsheim. Shots can be heard. Another video shows the excavator repeatedly turning on its own axis, officers circling the vehicle and firing shots.
The police union praised the actions of the officers on the scene. ‘The forces deployed acted professionally in an extremely dynamic and dangerous situation and thus prevented worse things from happening,’ said Thomas Mohr, deputy state chairman of the Police Union (GdP) in Baden-Württemberg.
The death of the digger driver marks a sad peak in police fatal shootings. According to statistics published by the magazine ‘Bürgerrechte & Polizei/CILIP’, the police shot a total of 22 people in 2024. This is the highest number since the magazine began keeping records in 1976, and more than half of them were apparently in an exceptional psychological situation.
Published in German in „nd“.
Image: Social Media/ Screenshot
