Darmstadt American rock-throwing incident

On the night of 27 February 2000, the three youths, ages 14, 17 and 18, confessed to throwing rocks at vehicles moving along the B3 motorway, saying that they had been "meeting regularly" for the past four to six weeks to throw rocks at cars. They carried a snow shovel and some rocks to a pedestrian bridge over the B3 motorway, where they climbed a plastic wall and began throwing rocks at passing cars. Finding that the rocks were not heavy enough to cause the cars to crash, they returned to an area near their school, where they found larger rocks, up to in weight, and carried them back to the highway where two of the boys handed the rocks to the third, who had climbed onto the wall. At this point they moved to the other side of the bridge, and began hurling rocks at cars moving in the opposite direction, causing one car to crash as it swerved to avoid the rocks. The three then dropped an stone onto a BMW driven by Sandra Ottmann, 20, who was driving her grandparents home from a meal celebrating her grandfather's birthday. The rock hit Ottmann in the head, killing her. == Sentencing and release ==

The rock-throwers, aged 18, 17 and 14, were convicted of double murder and attempted murders in three cases As the 4th panel chamber of Germany's Federal Court of Justice discarded their appeal, the judgement became final on 10 July 2001. The three returned to the United States. ==Aftermath==

The bridge from where the rocks were thrown remained closed for two years. On 30 June 2003, an American motorist alerted police to a group of four boys throwing egg-sized rocks from the same bridge in Darmstadt. The children, aged 5 to 9 and also American residents of Lincoln Village, were detained by German police as they were collecting more stones. No injuries were reported and the boys were released the same day. Teri Viedt, a spokesperson for Lincoln Village, stated that they "take every incident serious" since the 2000 murders, but also empasised that rock-throwing incidents were "not unique to Darmstadt" and that "German kids [elsewhere] do it, too". ==Reactions==

• Secretary of Defense William Cohen said, in a statement issued by the American Embassy in Berlin, that he was "shocked and saddened" by the "tragic accident" and pledged to cooperate closely with German authorities in the investigation. He said that American thoughts and prayers were with the victims' families. ==References==