Saturday around 9:30 p.m., a 15-year-old teenager was found seriously injured, lying on the ground in the street, in Kappel (SO), near Olten. According to initial reports, he was shot twice. In the hours that followed, the alleged perpetrator of the shooting was arrested in Hägendorf. This is another young man of the same age. They both knew each other. According to witnesses, the victim was returning home with a friend when the perpetrator emerged from a dark corner and opened fire.
Christina Winter, the lawyer for the victim’s family, was quick to react. According to her, her client had not only been harassed by the alleged shooter. He had also received death threats, which she reported to the Solothurn police. “Since August, I have tried to convince the authorities that this young man was dangerous. Unfortunately, my calls were not taken seriously,” laments the lawyer, who adds that the alleged perpetrator had again made death threats, in a video known to the police, last week.
“I repeatedly insisted to the investigating officer that he take action, because there was an urgent and real danger to the life and physical integrity of my client,” continues Christina Winter. But the authorities would have simply added the threats to the criminal complaint, already filed in the past. The lawyer thus considers that this is a “scandalous failure of the criminal prosecution authorities”, because “the act was predictable and nothing was done despite everything”.
She now calls for criminal and administrative measures to be taken against these same authorities. When contacted, the Solothurn police said they were unable to take a position on these accusations and needed time to make “additional clarifications”. In addition, the lawyer did not wish to provide any news regarding the victim’s state of health.