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Witnesses to Tugce attack found

December 1, 2014

Police have taken statements from the two main witnesses to the death of the student Tugce A. The young woman’s dreams of becoming a high school teacher came to a brutal end one weekend night in November.

https://p.dw.com/p/1DxrY
Mahnwache für Tugce vor Klinik in Offenbach 28.11.2014
Image: picture-alliance/dpa/Roessler

A spokesman said Monday that police questioned two teenage girls who witnessed the fatal attack on Tugce A. in Offenbach. The student had stepped in to protect the two teenage girls from harassment by a pack of men at a McDonald's in the central German town, enraging the girls' tormenters, one of whom went on to kill her with a fatal blow, police believe. Preliminary autopsy results released on Monday confirmed that the student had died of trauma to the head.

"Where other people looked away," President Joachim Gauck wrote to the woman's family over the weekend, "Tugce showed exemplary bravery and civil courage and stood up for victims of violence."

Tugce A. lingered two weeks in a coma before her parents took her off life support Friday, her 23rd birthday. People of all backgrounds and ages across Germany had held candlelight vigils for the young woman of Turkish descent.

"I wish to God that our daughter Tugce rests in peace," Turkish Deputy Prime Minister Bulent Arinc said Monday. "She showed great heroism and made a place in the hearts of the German public."

'Several police investigations'

The newspaper Bild released a surveillance video Monday, giving the first public glimpse of the 4 a.m. (0300 UTC) attack. A man seems to restrain another struggling to reach Tugce A. The attacker appears to break free and then hit the student on the head. She falls to the ground and stops moving.

Police have taken the 18-year-old Sanel M. into custody over the attack. The spokesman said the Serbian Muslim teenager has "been the focus of several police investigations in the past, also in connection with an assault causing bodily harm." A spokesman for the Offenbach prosecutor's office told the Associated Press that police had picked up the young man shortly after the attack and he admitted that he "smacked the victim in the head," though he has made no further statements.

Vigil for Tugce A.
Until her parents took Tugce A. off life support, more than 1,000 Germans rallied for her outside the hospital night after nightImage: picture-alliance/dpa/Roessler

The family plans to bury Tugce A. on Wednesday if authorities have finished with her autopsy by then. Her parents plan a public ceremony before relatives will carry her body to the cemetery.

"I painfully miss my daughter and her smile," her father, Ali, has told Bild.

mkg/mg (AFP, dpa, AP)