MUNICH POLICE are questioning two teenagers who kicked to death a 50-year-old man on Saturday afternoon on a train station platform – in front of 15 witnesses.
The deadly attack came after the man stopped the two hassling four younger teenagers for money on a suburban train. The man reported the aggressive teenagers to the police from his mobile phone and told them he would accompany the younger four from the train when it reached the next station, the wealthy neighbourhood of Solln.
When they disembarked, the two teenagers followed them, knocked the man to the ground and began kicking him, as other passengers looked on. Ten minutes after the man’s call, the police arrived at the station.
The man was rushed to a local clinic but died shortly afterwards; his two assailants fled the scene but were later arrested.
“From eyewitness reports, they targeted this extremely courageous man, stamping up and down on his face,” said Laurent Lafleur, spokesman for Munich police. The brutality of the attack ruled out the possibility of a manslaughter charge, instead the two are likely to be charged with murder.
“The suspects were annoyed that this man showed civil courage and prevented the crime they were planning on the younger teenagers by calling the police,” Mr Lafleur added. “They decided he had to pay for his action.”
The incident has revived memories of an attack two years ago in the state of Hesse when a pensioner was severely beaten by two youths at a subway station.
That attack was dragged into a state election at the time when it emerged that the perpetrators had migrant backgrounds. In the case of Saturday’s attack, the two youths are Munich natives.
The 18-year-old perpetrator, reportedly drunk at the time of the attack, has a prior record for assault and battery, theft and extortion. “I live each day as if it were my first,” he wrote in an online internet profile. “I shit on what I learned yesterday.”
The attack has left authorities concerned that it will discourage people from speaking out or intervening when they witness everyday conflict or crimes. “The worst thing that could happen,” police spokesman Wolfgang Wenger said, “is that the message that comes out of this is: ‘don’t get involved’.”
Conservative politicians in Bavaria said the attack showed the need for tougher juvenile sentences. Currently, 18- to 21-year-olds fall under the milder juvenile sentencing guidelines.