Cops Track Down And Arrest Poachers Who Shot Officers Dead To Avoid Being Caught With Illegal Prey

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Story By: James KingSub-EditorMarija Stojkoska, Agency: Newsflash

Two heavily armed poachers who blasted two German cops to death to avoid being caught hunting illegally are now facing murder charges.

The two were arrested following a massive manhunt after the two police officers, one man and a female cadet officer, were shot and killed during a routine traffic stop in the town of Kusel in the German state of Rhineland-Palatinate in the early hours of Monday morning (31st January).

The two officers had managed to send a radio message saying that they had been shot at, and reinforcements rushed to the scene, but they were unable to save the 24-year-old woman and her 29-year-old partner. The male officer was reportedly a chief commissioner.

One of the suspect Andreas Johannes S., 38, for the double murder of two police officers in Rhineland-Palatinate, Germany. (Newsflash)

In their radio message, the two had said that they had stopped a car being driven by two suspected poachers and that they had what was apparently illegally-hunted game in the vehicle. The last message that they made was “they are shooting”. After that, there was radio silence.

Police say that the 29-year-old man had managed to return 14 shots and that the female police officer had not used her weapon, which was still in the holster. She had apparently been killed instantly after she was hit in the head.

Police believe she was holding a torch in one hand and paperwork from the people stopped in the vehicle when they opened fire on her.

One of the suspect Andreas Johannes S., 38, for the double murder of two police officers in Rhineland-Palatinate, Germany. (Newsflash)

Her colleague was still alive when other officers arrived on the scene, but he died a short while later. It was later confirmed that he had been shot four times and had managed to fire 14 shots in return.

The 38-year-old suspect, identified only as Andreas Johannes S., is reportedly a local man and was arrested in Sulzbach, almost 40 kilometres away from the scene of the shooting, and the second suspect, not named but aged 32, was detained on the same day.

The police confirmed that the dead animals, likely killed by the alleged illegal hunters, had also been recovered, and a photograph of one of the two being arrested shows him being taken away while still wearing a butcher’s apron from apparently cutting up the illegally-hunted game.

One of the suspect for the double murder of two police officers in Rhineland-Palatinate, Germany, pictured in custody. (Newsflash)

Both men are facing murder charges after police found that two of the illegal weapons they recovered had been fired at the scene of the killings.

Germany’s Interior Minister Nancy Faeser said in a social media posting: “Regardless of the motive, this crime was just like an execution and shows that the police risk their lives for our security every day.”

Prosecutor Udo Gehring was one of those who expressed shock at what happened saying: “It just does not fit with the way things happen in Germany that somebody starts shooting on the street using hunting weapons just because they were caught poaching.”

One of the suspect for the double murder of two police officers in Rhineland-Palatinate, Germany, pictured in custody. (Newsflash)

After the home of one of the hunters was raided, police found five handguns, a rifle, 10 other long weapons and a crossbow, as well as a silencer and ammunition.

In the home of the second, aged 32, they found two long guns.