Chancellor Angela Merkel had to put off her public campaign in the northern part of Bavaria on Monday after knowing that a 24-year-old man has put three Ingolstadt hostages on hold in the town hall across the square, where she was scheduled to deliver her speech.
The convicted stalker of a town hall employee was carrying a knife and a seemingly genuine pistol replica, which he used in perpetrating the said act against the Ingolstadt hostages: the woman he was stalking, deputy mayor Sepp Misslbeck, and another unnamed crowd spectator.
According to police spokesperson Guenther Beck, the hostage taker did not necessarily make any demands from the police unit present. Thus, after five hours of negotiating the situation, the responding police managed to talk the convicted stalker into releasing the deputy mayor.
The other two Ingolstadt hostages were only freed after the police began storming the town hall and wounding the hostage taker. Several eyewitnesses shared that they heard four gun shots in the process of overpowering the suspect. Nevertheless, police said that the man was only wounded and not killed.
It was found out that the suspect had recently been taking psychiatric therapy. "The term stalker seems something of an understatement given that he has a whole list of previous convictions that go far beyond what one calls stalking," Alfred Lehmann said, adding that the man was also convicted of other felonies for his belligerent behavior.
Fortunately, over 200 police men and SWAT team members were already on patrol in the said area when the incident happened, since Merkel was scheduled to deliver her campaign speech with state governor Horst Seehofer at 5 p.m. on the same day.
Police didn't find any connection between the hostage stand-off and the chancellor's public appearance.
The suspect was rushed to the nearest clinic after the incident, and he is to appear before a local court on Tuesday, said Beck.
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