Teens arrested in beating death

On the evening of June 12 of this year a 44-year-old man got off a train at the Hamburg-Harburg station and, while on his way out the station, walked through a tunnel.

In that tunnel were a group of teenage boys who asked him for change, 20 cents to be exact. When the man said no, they began to beat him.

The punching and kicking that the man took to the head were so severe that he was hospitalized. After three weeks, he died.

This Wednesday, Hamburg police arrested a 16-year-old and a 17-year-old, one German and the other Turkish, in connection with the incident. Both had been in trouble with the police before, for minor offenses.

Arrest long in the making

The key to connecting the two teens with the crime, authorities say, was a mixture of video surveillance footage captured in and around the train station along with statements from eyewitnesses.

Though police kept news of the incident quiet, an effort was made to find others who had been at the Harburg station at or near the time of the assault and could place the accused youths at the scene.

Moreover, the victim was not alone at the time of the attack; he was accompanied by another man who fled to seek help at the time of the incident. Police describe him, however, as being “very intoxicated” on the evening in question and therefore unable to give a statement that would stand alone as evidence.

There was also another 16-year-old in the company of the two alleged perpetrators, but he was not arrested, as it is understood he did not join in the deadly assault.

mrh/AP/dpa
Editor: Michael Lawton