COVID KILLER: Life Sentence For Gunman Who Shot Petrol Pump Worker Over Face Mask

A brute who shot a petrol station worker dead because he had asked him to wear an anti-COVID face mask will be jailed for life, a court has ruled.

Picture shows the 50-year-old suspect in the petrol station in Idar-Oberstein, Germany, undated. He shot dead a 20-year-old employee in asking him to wear a mask in September, 2021 (Polizeiprasidium Trier/Newsflash)

Calculating Mario N., 50, had appealed after the district court in Bad Kreuznach, Germany, found him guilty of murder and firearms offences in September.

The Public Prosecutor’s Office had also appealed the verdict, local media reported without explaining why.

But both parties later withdrew their appeals, reported a court spokesperson without elaborating further.

The shocking crime unfolded when IT expert Mario N. walked into a petrol station convenience store in Idar-Oberstein on 18th September 2020 to buy a beer.

Victim Alex W. – a 20-year-old temp working at the store – asked him to put on a face mask to comply with COVID regulations.

Picture shows the 50-year-old suspect in the petrol station in Idar-Oberstein, Germany, undated. He shot dead a 20-year-old employee in asking him to wear a mask in September, 2021 (Polizeiprasidium Trier/Newsflash)

But Mario N. simply left the store and returned an hour later, shooting Alex in the head and killing him instantly.

Case judge Claudia Buech-Schmitz said of Mario N. during the trial: “From the chamber’s point of view, he acted insidiously and for base reasons.”

Describing his victim as defenceless and unsuspecting, she said: “The weapon was deliberately only drawn at the last moment.”

On his motive, she revealed: “He found it inappropriate that a ‘petrol station boy’ – as he called Alex W. in his interrogation – had disciplined him.”

Mario N. had told his brother-in-law in a video message shortly after the crime: “I shot that *rsehole, I did it.”

Dr Buech-Schmitz said during the trial that the shooting was politically motivated.

Referring to Mario N.’s anger at COVID rules, she said: “The person Alexander W. did not count, at that moment he was the only object available to express his long-standing dissatisfaction.”

Petrol station worker Alex W., 20, who was shot to death by Mario N., 50, poses, undated photo. The offender was sentenced to life in Bad Kreuznach, Rhineland-Palatinate, Germany, Tuesday, Sept. 13, 2022. (Newsflash)

Under German law, a person sentenced to life imprisonment can typically apply for parole after having served 15 years.