BERLIN (AP) — Authorities in Germany say they have identified nearly 400 instances of online hate speech related to last week’s killing of two police officers, a shooting that the suspects, who were poaching wild animals, apparently carried out to cover up the fact they had been killing them.
Officials in Rhineland-Palatinate said that 102 of the 399 posts appeared to be criminally relevant, and 15 of those individuals have already been identified and prosecuted.
A deadly shooting occurred on a rural road in western Germany last Monday morning. Having been caught with poached animals in their van, two men are said to have opened fire with hunting weapons, investigators have reported. They have been arrested hours after the incident.
Our cops were killed cold-bloodedly, and we will not accept people celebrating their deaths and mocking the victims,” said Roger Lewentz, interior minister of the regional government.
A man was arrested late last week after a video of masked speakers calling for people to lure police officers onto country tracks and shoot them was released.
