Man Fights Off Repossessor With Chainsaw

[matcom]

<snip>

BERLIN (Reuters) - A German man tried to fight off a repossessor with a chainsaw and gasoline bombs before being arrested by police special forces, authorities said Thursday.

The 52-year-old man in the eastern town of Helbra barricaded himself in his single-family house when the repossessor arrived with a two-man police escort. He first drove off the trio by throwing petrol bombs and a barbecue lighting device at them.

The police called in reinforcements, a SEK special forces unit. When they stormed the house the man fired up his chainsaw and revved it but was quickly overwhelmed. Two police officers were injured, a spokeswoman said.

"We've had a number of repossessions before but never had anything quite like this," said police spokeswoman Birgit Bandermann, adding he faces charges of attempted manslaughter.

http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&cid=573&ncid=573&e=1&u=/nm/20041014/od_nm/odd_germany_chainsaw_dc

[Pert_UK]

1. What on earth is "attempted manslaughter".....does not compute!

Surely, if it's deliberate (attempted) it can't be manslaughter.....unless the bloke's completely mad, but even then (under British law) the charge would be reduced to manslaughter in court, due to diminished responsibilities / bonkersness.

[Kellanved]

3. a German legal concept

The attempt to commit any felony is punishable.
Murder and manslaughter are covered by different articles (§211 respective §212) of the penal code, hence attempted manslaughter is different from attempted murder.

Furthermore "murder" is limited to a set of means and motivations, while "manslaughter ("Totschlag") is pretty much undefined. In this regard "attempted" means "failed", not necessarily "planned". If it was foreseeable that his actions eventually would have ended in manslaughter, then "attempted manslaughter" is a valid accusation. In addition to battery, of course.

[Pert_UK]

5. How queer.....I suspected it wasn't an equivalent translation.

Thanks

P

[Love Bug]

2. He drove away the Polizei?

Dayam... I lived in Germany in the Polizei are not ones to mess with. That guy's lucky they didn't just shoot him.

[BJ]

4. Must be the season for chainsaw mayhem

Got this in my e-mail this morning--

Albuquerque police have taken one person into custody after a roommate dispute escalated into a five-hour SWAT standoff Tuesday night.

According to police, one person asked his roommate at the Academy Heights apartment complex to leave the apartment. When the second person refused, the first went after him with a chainsaw and chased him out of the apartment.

Police were called to the complex at Academy and Wyoming and, when they arrived, the man barricaded himself and kept police at bay using the chainsaw, according to police. Link to KOBTV.com