Non-fatal injuries 18 Start date September 19, 2010 | Perpetrator Sabine Radmacher | |
 | ||
Location St. Elisabethen-Krankenhaus Hospital
Lörrach, Baden-Württemberg, Germany Weapons .22-calibre Walther GSP
Knife Deaths 4 (including the perpetrator) Motive Presumably neighbor/custody disputes Attack types Mass shooting, Arson, Stabbing, Spree killer, Familicide | ||
The 2010 Lörrach hospital shooting rampage occurred on 19 September 2010 in the small town of Lörrach, Germany near the Swiss border. Sabine Radmacher, a 41-year-old woman, killed her five-year-old son and the boy's father, her ex-partner. She then crossed the street to St. Elisabethen Hospital, where she shot and stabbed one male nurse, killing him, and also injuring eighteen others, including a police officer. Soon after, the woman was fatally shot by special police units.
Contents
Background
In March 2009, a similar gun rampage had occurred in nearby Winnenden, when teenage gunman Tim Kretschmer killed twelve people at his former school before killing three civilians and then committing suicide in Wendlingen. The incident triggered off a debate in Germany on tougher gun ownership laws. On 16 September 2010 – only three days before the Lörrach rampage – the boy's father had to appear in court on a charge of failure to securely store his gun.
The killing spree
The hospital rampage took place at around 6:00 p.m. local time at the Catholic St. Elizabeth's Hospital in Lörrach, a town close to the Swiss and French borders. A female lawyer smothered her five-year-old son and then shot and stabbed the boy's father, her ex-partner. She then set fire to the flat, eventually causing an explosion. She then crossed the street to St. Elisabethen Hospital and entered the Gynaecology Ward, where she stabbed and shot a male nurse, killing him instantly. Eighteen people, including a police officer who happened to be at the hospital, were also shot and wounded. When the emergency services arrived fifteen minutes later, police exchanged fire with the shooter and fatally shot her.
It was revealed by the police that the woman, identified as 41-year-old Sabine Radmacher, was believed to have been involved in an incident earlier on the same day in a nearby building. According to reports, she was seen leaving a burning apartment block opposite the hospital, with a gun in her hand, where two people had lost their lives in an explosion. The police announced that a child was among the two who had been killed. Radmacher was also described as a sporting markswoman and had used a .22 calibre Walther GSP during the rampage.