The city center party and school prom from the weekend are now just side notes in Bad Oeynhausen. A city is worried about 20-year-old Philippos, who was critically injured in an attack on Sunday night.
The people of Bad Oeynhausen value their spa park. With an area of 26 hectares, two bathhouses, the elegant foyer and several fountains in the middle of the town centre, it serves as an ideal local recreation area. In the Kaiserpalais, almost 100 graduates from the Minden Ratsgymnasium celebrated their graduation in this idyllic setting, which was to have such a terrible outcome.
At around 1:30 a.m. on Sunday night, two ball-goers got into an argument with a group of around ten people, according to police and prosecutors. The group then allegedly beat the two of them. 20-year-old Philippos from Minden, the brother of a high school graduate, was critically injured. On Monday afternoon, FOCUS online learned from investigators that he had been placed in an artificial coma and later declared brain dead. According to this information, the devices were to be switched off during the course of Monday, which would make it a homicide.
Throughout Monday, the police will cordon off the area in front of the Imperial Palace and secure any possible clues. So far, none of the suspected perpetrators has turned themselves in voluntarily; investigators are following up on tips from the public. Many Oeynhausen residents and visitors to the surrounding rehabilitation facilities are taking advantage of the sunny weather to go for a walk, rest on one of the park benches or enjoy the warm temperatures in the shade of the trees with a book. “It’s actually a beautiful, quiet spa park,” says one walker who, like many others, had attended the town center party at the weekend, with pop singer Olaf Henning as the highlight.
She and other acquaintances have already searched their own photos and videos of the party for possible clues to the wanted men – but the neon orange Adidas tracksuit jacket that the police said the suspect was wearing is nowhere to be seen. “You want to party and then something terrible happens,” she says, shocked. From shooting festivals and other celebrations in this rural area, arguments between drunks can sometimes break out. “But today it’s gotten out of hand,” she observes with concern. She reads about stabbings or fights almost every day; when she encounters larger groups, she now crosses the street to be on the safe side. “This is a different dimension,” says her companion, adding bitterly: “You could have predicted that something would happen here too.”
A patient at a rehabilitation facility hadn’t heard anything about the attack at the weekend because she was engrossed in a course. It wasn’t until she went for a walk in the spa gardens on Monday and saw the police presence that she learned about the dramatic incident. “You think you’re safe in a spa town,” she says. Another rehabilitation patient shares this impression to a limited extent: “It’s actually very peaceful here. But at night all the cats are grey.”
Many park visitors are shocked when they walk past the police tape that cordoned off the crime scene. “Life should really be getting going now and then something like this happens,” laments one walker.
One of the high school graduates has started a fundraising campaign for the families of the two victims and had already collected more than 38,000 euros by Monday evening. The police are still asking for witnesses. In addition to the neon orange jacket, she describes the suspect as male, southern European, around 20 years old and 176 centimeters tall, with a mustache and goatee. The “Palais” homicide squad is accepting tips on 0521/545-0.