German Magistrate shoots at snowballers

A German magistrate has been arrested after he used a double-barrel shotgun to shoot at two teenagers who had pelted him with snowballs.

The magistrate had opened the window at his home in Dahlenburg to shout at the kids when a snowball landed in his face.

In a rage he grabbed the gun and took aim at the pair just as one of them was lining up a second snowball.

The shot hit one of the two 16-year-olds in the arm, and he was treated in hospital but later released.

Police officers in the northern German town are stumped as to why the magistrate took such drastic action against the boy. He has so far refused to comment during questioning.

The public prosecutor is now investigating the 55-year-old for attempted manslaughter and the Lower Saxon Justice Ministry is to make a decision on his future as a magistrate after the outcome of the investigation.

What the hell is 'attempted manslaughter'? Manslaughter amounts to killing someone, when you didn't actually try to kill them. So how can you attempt to accidentally kill someone?

A similar story happened last year in Holland with a little worse ending:

Boy murdered after throwing snowball at passing car

A 13-year-old Dutch boy has been shot dead after throwing a snowball at a passing car. Detectives in Rotterdam say the boy, whose name has not been released in accordance with Dutch privacy rules, died in hospital from a gunshot wound to the head.He was playing in the snow with a group of friends near an underpass when he was fatally wounded by the unknown assailant. A police spokeswoman has refused to confirm a report in the Algemeen Dagblad newspaper that the boy was killed by the driver of a car. The driver was said to have fired on a group from a side street after a snowball hit his car.

Hazza's right - manslaughter is analogous with the tort of negligence in that regard - and you can't attempt to be negligent, or indeed attempt anything when there is no 'mens rea'. That's English law - the Germans might have a 2nd degree murder or something...

@ Hazza

Well I guess he attempted to accidently kill them ? If he had killed the boy, it would have been completely accidental ?

Perhaps if you attempt to scare the shite out of someone in such a way as could possibly cause death (like firing a shotgun at them), then you cuold call it attempted manslaughter.

It would appear that under English law, this crime is not recognised for the very reason you've given.

If he was attempting to shoot them then it would have been attempted murder. But he was probably only trying to scare them off but mistakenly hit them, therfore it is attemped manslaughter.

I think we can all agree that it's a bit of a fucking extreme reaction whatever you want to call it.

What you never thought of it Keydeck ? I must say, the thought often crosses my mind to shot the little brats while sitting on the S-Bahn home from work, as they are running up and down the S-Bahn making as much noice as possible and banging past you as you are trying to catch a 5 minute rest eye !

But the difference is, I don't have a shot gun ! But not an altogether everyday occurance, but regular enough all over the world, some annoys someone enough, and something just snaps, and they do something quite mad !

It's pretty extreme in my view - I just throw snowballs back, or if I've got time to spare, chase them, catch them, throw them into a snowdrift and then carry on my merry way.

What is a fact is that attempted manslaughter, using an English definintion, CANNOT and DOES NOT exist.

What about attempted snowmanslaughter? Is that so wrong?
"Driving home drunk, the woman aimed her car toward the garage but ended up clipping a snowperson- quite by accident. The snowperson (identity undisclosed because he is a minor) still remains in critical condition."