German official slams online ‘incitement’ after mask killing

By FRANK JORDANS
Associated Press

BERLIN (AP) — Germany’s health minister has partly blamed “incitement” against the government’s pandemic rules on social media for the killing of a gas station clerk by a man who refused to wear a face mask. A 49-year-old German man was arrested Sunday over the the fatal shooting a day earlier in the western town of Idar-Oberstein. Authorities said the suspect told officers he rejected the anti-infection measures. Health Minister Jens Spahn told reporters in Berlin on Wednesday that the crime “has a lot to do with the incitement, the hatred, that is posted on social media.” He called on Germans to speak up if friends, relatives or neighbors start spreading conspiracy theories about the virus.