Teenage girl shot dead by Swiss army recruit
{{date|November 28, 2007}}
[[Image:Cartouches-Fass90-p1000782.jpg|thumb|left|200px|Ready ammunition of the Swiss Army. Every soldier equipped with the SIG SG 550 assault rifle is issued 50 rounds of ammunition in a sealed box, to be opened only upon alert. Any other use, or even unsealing the box, is strictly forbidden. The killer used ammunition from a different source.]]
[[Image:Stgw_90.jpg|thumb|right|250px|The soldier used his army weapon, [[w:SIG SG 550|SIG SG 550]] assault rifle to kill the victim from distance.]]

A 16-year-old girl was shot dead from distance in [[w:Zürich|Zürich]], [[Switzerland]] on Friday night. The victim was waiting with her companion at a bus stop in Zürich at 10 p.m. [[w:Central European Time|CET]], next to the Hönggerberg campus of [[w:ETH Zurich|Swiss Federal Institute of Technology]], a technical university. The shooter, a conscript in the [[w:Military of Switzerland|Swiss Armed Forces]], used his army-issued assault rifle to shoot the victim at a distance of 60-100 metres. With a gunshot wound in her upper body, the girl died in the arms of her companion before the medical help could arrive.

"Yes, it was me who was shooting," confirmed the 21-years-old Swiss recruit of [[Chile]]an ancestry, who had just finished his training at recruit school on the same day. He did not know his victim, who was a 16-year-old hairdresser apprentice. The state attorney assumes that the shooter has picked his victim randomly. The motive of the crime is not known at the moment.

There is an ongoing domestic debate whether soldiers should continue to keep their firearms at home. According to a study by Martin Killias, a criminologist at the School of Forensic Sciences and Criminology in [[w:Lausanne|Lausanne]], army-issued firearms are responsible for 300 deaths annually in Switzerland and two-thirds of suicides-by-firearm are committed with army-issued firearms.

{{haveyoursay}}

== Sources ==
{{wikipedia|Swiss Army#Small arms|Swiss Army}}
*{{source|url=http://www.20min.ch/news/schweiz/story/25887782
|title=Täter war vor tödlichem Schuss zu Hause
|author=
|pub=20 Minuten
|date=November 28, 2007}} {{languageicon|de|German}}
*{{source|url=http://nzz.ch/nachrichten/zuerich/rekrut_ist_todesschuetze_von_zuerich-hoengg_1.590678.html
|title=Junger Soldat gesteht das Tötungsdelikt von Höngg
|author=
|pub=Neue Zürcher Zeitung
|date=November 28, 2007}} {{languageicon|de|German}}
*{{source|url=http://www.tages-anzeiger.ch/dyn/news/zuerich/817718.html
|title=Soldat erschoss Lehrtochter mit Gewehr
|author=Stefan Hohler
|pub=Tages-Anzeiger
|date=November 27, 2007}} {{languageicon|de|German}}
*{{source|url=http://www.20min.ch/news/zuerich/story/12427884
|title=Der Täter suchte sich das Opfer zufällig aus
|author=
|pub=20 Minuten
|date=November 27, 2007}} {{languageicon|de|German}}
*{{source|url=http://www.20min.ch/news/schweiz/story/26451555
|title=Armeewaffen ein Problem für die innere Sicherheit
|author=
|pub=20 Minuten
|date=November 27, 2007}} {{languageicon|de|German}}
*{{source|url=http://www.earthtimes.org/articles/show/148883.html
|title=Army recruit uses military weapon to kill teenage girl 
|author=Deutsche Presse-Agentur
|pub=Earthtimes.org
|date=November 27, 2007}}

{{publish}}
{{archived}}
[[Category:Europe]]
[[Category:Switzerland]]
[[Category:Crime and law]]
[[Category:Obituaries]]
[[Category:Zürich, Switzerland]]
Ready ammunition of the Swiss Army. Every soldier equipped with the SIG SG 550 assault rifle is issued 50 rounds of ammunition in a sealed box, to be opened only upon alert. Any other use, or even unsealing the box, is strictly forbidden. The killer used ammunition from a different source.
SIG SG 550 assault rifle to kill the victim from distance.

A 16-year-old girl was shot dead from distance in Zürich, Switzerland on Friday night. The victim was waiting with her companion at a bus stop in Zürich at 10 p.m. CET, next to the Hönggerberg campus of Swiss Federal Institute of Technology, a technical university. The shooter, a conscript in the Swiss Armed Forces, used his army-issued assault rifle to shoot the victim at a distance of 60-100 metres. With a gunshot wound in her upper body, the girl died in the arms of her companion before the medical help could arrive.

"Yes, it was me who was shooting," confirmed the 21-years-old Swiss recruit of Chilean ancestry, who had just finished his training at recruit school on the same day. He did not know his victim, who was a 16-year-old hairdresser apprentice. The state attorney assumes that the shooter has picked his victim randomly. The motive of the crime is not known at the moment.

There is an ongoing domestic debate whether soldiers should continue to keep their firearms at home. According to a study by Martin Killias, a criminologist at the School of Forensic Sciences and Criminology in Lausanne, army-issued firearms are responsible for 300 deaths annually in Switzerland and two-thirds of suicides-by-firearm are committed with army-issued firearms.
Europe Switzerland Crime and law Obituaries Zürich, Switzerland