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Hells Angel under police guard after attack

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Hells Angel under police guard after attack
Sommer's restaurant in northern Berlin. Photo: DPA

The head of a Berlin Hells Angels gang is in an artificial coma in hospital - under 24-hour armed police guard after being shot six times on Sunday morning.

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Detectives were on Monday morning still at a loss as to who had shot André Sommer, who until about two weeks ago had been chief of the “Nomads” Hells Angels chapter – that is until he disbanded after getting wind of a potential ban from Berlin’s state interior minister.

Police have issued a plea for witnesses, although it would seem unlikely that anyone would come forward and potentially step into a biker gang war.

Sommer disbanded the gang ahead of the official ban and accompanying raids – and thus prevented the authorities seizing property or money. Berlin police launched an investigation within their own ranks to try to find the mole who had tipped off the gang.

The 47-year-old was shot six times at close range in the early hours of Sunday as he left his restaurant at the end of the night.

The attack has not only left Sommer seriously injured, but also provoked speculation of a possible biker gang war, either between the Hells Angels and rival group the Bandidos – or within the ranks of the Hells Angels themselves.

The Berlin-based Tagesspiegel newspaper said on Monday that Sommer had instructed his “Nomads” members to organise new groups in the region around Berlin and suggested that some of his own Angels may have had their noses put out of joint during the reorganisation.

The German authorities have carried out enormous raids against Hells Angels and Bandidos gangs across the country over the last few weeks.

More than 1,000 police officers were involved in a series of raids in the north of the country after one Hells Angel charged with a range of offences including blackmail, human trafficking and pimping decided to talk.

He named names as he told prosecutors about executions and even torture allegedly carried out by the gang, the Frankfurter Rundschau newspaper said. His information also sparked the still on-going operation at a workshop near Kiel for the body of a man said to be cemented into the building’s foundations.

DPA/The Local/hc

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