2021 Idar-Oberstein shooting

On September 18, 2021, a fatal attack with a firearm on the 20-year-old employee of a gas station was carried out in Idar-Oberstein, Germany. The perpetrator, a 49-year-old man, had been requested by the employee to wear his surgical mask as mandated by the German government in response to the COVID-19 pandemic. The shooting received a lot of public attention and was related by some to the increasing radicalization of the so-called Querdenken movement or to the recent rise of right-wing conspiracy theories, while criminal psychologists pointed to the possibility that the shooter may have been driven by personal or psychological problems. In September 2022, the perpetrator was convicted of murder and sentenced to life in jail; both prosecution and defence lodged appeals against the verdict.