The 42-year-old was known to the police: the man shot in Krefeld was "not a random victim"

What's behind it? Several shots were fired in downtown Krefeld on Monday evening, and a man died after being shot in the head.

The 42-year-old was known to the police: the man shot in Krefeld was "not a random victim"

What's behind it? Several shots were fired in downtown Krefeld on Monday evening, and a man died after being shot in the head. While the search for the murder weapon continues, investigators assume that the 42-year-old was specifically chosen.

After the shooting of a 42-year-old on the open street in Krefeld, the homicide commission also investigated in the direction of the drug milieu. "We are investigating all conceivable criminalistic hypotheses and actually only rule out that the man could have been a random victim," said senior public prosecutor Axel Stahl.

The man was shot dead in the city center on Monday evening. At around 7:50 p.m., witnesses heard several shots and saw two men running away in the dark, as the investigators have now announced. The man who was shot was known to police for drug and property crimes. However, it is said that he was not a "big player" in the drug business, but rather a small dealer who also used drugs himself. A shot hit the victim in the head, the man's body lay on the sidewalk after the crime. An autopsy was ordered. The Albanian has lived in Germany for four years.

The day after, bullet holes were found on a mailbox and an intercom on a house facade at the scene of the crime. Around 30 riot police officers searched for the murder weapon under parked cars, in parks and on a railway embankment. Homicide officers questioned residents on the street. The two fleeing men were of normal build, according to witnesses. One was wearing a dark jacket, light-colored trousers and a light-colored headgear, the other a dark jacket with a prominent logo on the back, dark trousers and a dark hat.

It is not yet clear whether the victim was riding a bicycle at the time of the crime. "There was a wheel lying around at the crime scene, but it's also possible that someone just knocked it over," it said. There were apparently no direct eyewitnesses to the crime. It is therefore still unclear whether the man was treacherously murdered in an ambush or whether there was a dispute before the shots were fired.