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BERLIN (AP) – German police say a 49-year-old man has been arrested on suspicion of murder in connection with the shooting death of a gas station clerk following a dispute over face masks .
Authorities in the western city of Trier said on Monday evening that the suspect told officers he acted “out of anger” after going to a gas station in Idar-Oberstein on Saturday to buy beer and that the 20-year-old clerk asked him to put on a mask before being served.
“He further stated during questioning that he rejects the measures against the coronavirus,” police said in a statement.
The obligation to wear masks is part of the measures in place in Germany to stop the spread of the virus.
According to police, the suspect first left the gas station after the argument in the town of Idar-Oberstein, but then returned half an hour later with a mask and shot the clerk killed in the head.
The suspect, a German citizen who was not identified by name under privacy laws, initially fled the scene but surrendered to police on Sunday morning.
There were regular protests, some violent, against the pandemic restrictions imposed by Germany over the past year.
One of the driving forces behind the protests is the Querdenken movement, which includes people opposed to masks and vaccines, conspiracy theorists and some far-right extremists.
Facebook last week deleted nearly 150 accounts and pages linked to the Querdenken movement as part of a new policy focused on groups who spread disinformation or incite violence, but who do not fit the existing categories of bad actors on the platform.
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