By Isabel Pfannkuche and Timo Beurich
A police officer shoots a young man. “For self-defense,” say the police. It was Tuesday at 2:20 p.m. The man attacked officers with an axe. BZ search for traces in a prefabricated housing estate in Senftenberg (Oberspreewald-Lausitz).
Ax attacker Markus M. (34) is considered a helpful, friendly neighbor in the five-story house on Möwenstrasse. He carries old people’s purchases up the stairs and sometimes brings a piece of cake with them. He took care of his beloved grandmother until her death two years ago. He also has to deal with people in his job, working as a social assistant.
Two hours before his deadly freak out on Tuesday, he calls his stepfather. He says to BZ: “He was unhappy because he was already in his mid-30s and was still alone.” His biological father died when Markus M. was nine. All he has left is his cat.
On Tuesday afternoon, a police officer shot Markus M. (34) in an apartment building on Möwenstrasse in Senftenberg after he had rioted with an ax and attacked the officers Photo: Robert Michael/dpa
Two police officers shoot with submachine guns
In the early Tuesday afternoon, a neighbor in the apartment heard about her noise, alerted the police. The officers come in pairs, ring Markus M.’s doorbell several times. He doesn’t open it, riots and hacks up his facility.
“He may be schizophrenic,” an officer reportedly said, according to a neighbor. And then: “We need reinforcements.” Neighbor René Nowak (55) to BZ: “Then two men loaded their submachine guns in front of my apartment door and stormed up.” Markus M. attacks the police officers with an ax in his hand – and is shot.
The neighbors are wondering: did Markus M. really have to die? Could the police have acted differently?
The forensics had to do in the night from Tuesday to Wednesday until 2.30 a.m. in the prefabricated building on Möwenstraße in Senftenberg Photo: Olaf Selchow
Eleven bullet holes in the stairwell
A day later, the wall in the stairwell is still riddled with bullet holes. There are eleven in total, one in the double-glazed window. The apartment door to the one-room apartment is sealed, through the spy you can see two more projectile holes in the green painted wall.
A few roses and candles in front of the house remind us of Markus M.