Shooting at Erlenstrasse: Double murder or jealousy?
On Thursday night, two men entered Café 56 in Erlenstrasse. Shortly afterwards, shouting could be heard in the otherwise quiet side street behind the musical-theatre. A woman was seen running away barefoot, the waitress fled the café, and then shots were fired. Two men were killed in the pub while a third was injured.
The following morning, after the police and forensic specialists had gone, the sun came out. Laura Ferkovic, her daughter Svetlana, and their friend Gabriela were on their way to the shops.
«Nobody from the neighbourhood goes to Café 56 just for a coffee. It has always been a closed society,» the woman, who has Albanian roots, said. The licensee of the local pub Güterhalle at neighbouring Mattenstrasse added that the people who ran the cafe were of good character. «There's nothing I could say against the café, it has always been quiet. I have always had a good impression of my neighbours,» he said.
He agrees with the assumption of the police that the shooting was a targeted crime. «The waitress ran away immediately when the two perpetrators entered the café, which suggests that the two men were known in the café,» he said. This impression is underpinned by the fact that the owner of Café 56 went underground, only telling the «Blick» newspaper «I don't want to say anything.»
Shouting before shooting
The licensee of the Güterhalle said it was mostly Albanians who visited the café. At the anti-fascist café next door, a resident who lives in a shared flat in the neighbourhood said that the café had always been quiet. «We didn't notice much and it is quite normal to see people smoking outside,» he said, adding that nobody in the shared flat had heard any noise before the shooting. This is a different story to the one told by Laura Ferkovic and her friend Gabriela, who said they had heard loud shouting in the street.
The story became more confusing when Laura Ferkovic added that they also saw a woman running through the street barefoot shortly before the shots were fired at around 8.15pm in the café. She could not be certain how many bullets had been fired, and only said that they were loud and that the men ran off towards the Badischer Bahnhof. The woman without shoes was a neighbour who lives in one of the houses in the street. However, Ms Ferkovic could not confirm whether the woman had been in Café 56 that evening.
Crime of passion?
While the police could identify the victims, the perpetrators are still on the run. The Basel prosecution has so far not said anything about the motive except that the shooting was not related to terrorism. The police assume that it was a targeted crime.
The impressions of the neighbours underpin this assumption: It seems to be clear that the perpetrators and victims were known to each other. And in the view of the neighbours it cannot be excluded that it was a pay-back out of jealousy; a crime of passion. It is clear to Laura Ferkovic that «most Albanians around here are peaceful» and it was «bad» that the crime had shone a negative light on the community.
Breathing Fasnacht air in the «erschti Lektion» (first lesson) on Barfi
The «drey scheenschte Dääg», the three days of Fasnacht, are over but the tunes are still in everybody's heads. Maybe the children are still ridden by Fasnacht-fever. If so, then there is only one remedy: Take the first lesson at Barfi.
It is loud in the tent on Barfüsserplatz on Friday afternoon. Very loud. Kids are practicing drumming and piping in preparation for the next Fasnacht. Many children can breathe some clique-air during their first lesson on Barfi. To drum and pipe like the adults is the goal for many. Experienced members of cliques show the aspiring young players how to get a note out of the piccolo and how to best hold the drumsticks. Half of the young guards are represented in the tent, while the other half distribute flyers. The «erschti Lektion» has been organised for the last 29 years by the Fasnachts-Comité.
Flights to Berlin cancelled at EuroAirport because of strike action
A strike by ground staff at airports in Berlin on Friday led to the cancellation of almost all flights including those between Basel and the German capital. Between 6am and 11pm, a total of 13 flights to and from Zürich were cancelled, as well as two in Geneva and five in Basel, as indicated on the airport websites. The flights of Swiss, Airberlin, and easyJet were affected.
The airlines recommended passengers to not even travel to the airports. All three airlines offered passengers a refund or a transfer to another flight, according to their websites. Swiss however asked those customers who had booked a flight through a travel agency or an online portal to contact the companies directly.
A total of 455 flights had been cancelled at Tegel Airport in Berlin and a further 204 in Schönefeld, the airport operator reported. They said there was no chaos at either airport since many passengers had been informed by their airlines in advance and therefore did not turn up at the airports. The strike started on Friday at 4am and lasted until Saturday at 5am.
The Verdi trade union had called for the strike action. The union was still ready to find a fair solution for the conflict over pay, a spokesperson said on Friday at the start of the strike. Verdi is calling for all 2,000 ground staff employees to receive an increase of their hourly rate by one euro to twelve euros, and also for one-year pay contract. The employers have so far offered ten cents more per hour, over a period of four years.