Police arrest man over deadly shooting near Stuttgart

A special task force arrested a man after a fatal shooting in the small town of Asperg, some 20 kilometers (about 12 miles) west of Stuttgart, police said on Sunday.

Investigators say they are looking into a connection between that crime and a spate of other shootings in the region.

What we know about the arrest

Officers took the man into custody at a residential building in Asperg.

However, police refused to say whether the man they had arrested was a suspect in the Asperg shooting on Saturday morning.

The shooting took place at a gravel car park in Asperg, the DPA news agency reported. The gunman shot two 18-year-old men, one of whom died with the other seriously injured.

Christian Eiberger, Asperg's mayor, said the town was in shock after the crime. "This is a new dimension of violence that I could not have imagined," he said.

Link to wider pattern?

Investigators have confirmed that they are looking at possible connections between that crime and other shootings in the region.

A special commission has been set up to solve the wider shooting incidents, with some 40 officers of the "Goethe" task force to be supported by state criminal police.

Police carried out preventative identity checks in downtown Stuttgart and in the city's Zuffenhausen district on the night leading into Sunday after several shooting incidents were reported in recent weeks.

Several hundred officers checked around 100 people and secured several prohibited or dangerous objects such as knuckledusters and folding knives, German broadcaster SWR reported.

Edited by: Darko Janjevic