Man who shot 2 police officers dead gets life in jail

A man who shot dead a police officer and a trainee in western Germany in January was handed a life sentence by the Kaiserslautern Regional Court on Wednesday.

The court also determined that the particular seriousness of the crime means the 39-year-old is not expected to be paroled after 15 years in prison, as can often be the case in Germany.

The 24-year-old female police trainee and a 29-year-old police commissioner were killed by shots to the head on a remote district road in an apparent effort to escape arrest for poaching.

The public prosecutor's office assumed that the main accused wanted to cover up poaching with the crime.

At the time of the crime, 22 freshly shot deer and roe deer were allegedly lying in the van.

The court found a second defendant guilty of complicity in commercial poaching.

However, the court did not impose a sentence because the 33-year-old had already given comprehensive testimony before the trial began and had contributed to the clarification of the crime.

The two men were arrested in neighbouring Saarland shortly after the crime.

The defence had pleaded for "a just sentence," without a concrete demand.

In their view, the crime was "not murder, at most bodily harm resulting in death."

The verdict can be appealed.