The murder trial for fatal shots at two young police officers during a night traffic check in the Palatinate began on Tuesday morning at 9 a.m. in Kaiserslautern. A 39-year-old defendant has to answer before the district court. He is said to have killed a 24-year-old police officer and her 29-year-old colleague with multiple gunshots in late January to cover up poaching.

14 appointments are planned until September 9th, several experts and a large number of witnesses have been invited. The public prosecutor assumes that the accused was on the night of the crime with a 33-year-old accomplice for hunting poaching near Kusel in the western Palatinate.

The police officers, who were patrolling in an unmarked vehicle, found the van parked on the side of a county road suspicious and got out to check it. Surprisingly, according to the prosecution, the 39-year-old fired a shot from a shotgun “from a short distance in the head” of the police candidate. The woman fell into the street with serious injuries. According to this, the accused is said to have shot the police commissioner first with a shotgun and then with a hunting rifle, fatally hitting him in the head.

When the 39-year-old German noticed that the policewoman was still alive, he fired another shot at the woman’s head with the shotgun, it said. According to the judiciary, the two suspects fled and were arrested a few hours later in nearby Saarland.