Legal News

Man shoots and kills court employee in Austria

By (Breaking Legal News)

A man unhappy with a judge's ruling in his divorce case returned to the court house on Wednesday and shot and killed one of its employees, authorities said.

The alleged killer ? a 57-year-old Austrian male ? was arrested after gunning down a 42-year-old court employee who is the mother of two young children, police said. No other injuries have been reported at the district courthouse in Hollabrunn, a town about 30 miles (50 kilometers) northwest of Vienna, Austria's capital, said Leopold Etz of the Lower Austrian criminal police force.

Etz could not immediately confirm local media reports that the woman had been shot in the head. He said the motive of the unidentified attacker was not immediately clear but that he apparently had come to the courthouse for a divorce-related matter.

Wilhelm Tschugguel, president of a court in the town of Korneuburg that oversees the Hollabrunn court, said the alleged killer was unhappy with the outcome of his divorce proceedings and had entered the court in Hollabrunn to find the judge who had handled the case.

Full post as published by Breaking Legal News on December 16, 2009 (boomark / email).