Suspect Arrested After Deadly Shooting at Switzerland’s Aarauer Rave

A 43-year-old man is in custody following the shooting at Switzerland’s Aarauer Rave that left a 22-year-old woman dead and five people injured, ending a manhunt that ran nearly a full day and pulled in police from across the German border. According to Aargau cantonal police, the suspect was arrested in the early hours of Monday, August 31, after close to 24 hours on the run.

The shooting happened around 2:30 a.m. on Sunday, August 30, as the seventh edition of the event was winding down at the Schachen horse-racing track in Aarau, about 30 miles west of Zurich. Roughly 3,500 people had come through over the course of the day, according to reports, and some witnesses initially mistook the gunfire for fireworks.

The woman killed was identified as Maria Spinelli, a 22-year-old Italian national who died at the scene. Five others — four men and one woman between the ages of 24 and 27 — suffered injuries ranging from minor to severe. Police said they believe a single perpetrator was involved. A motive hasn’t been disclosed, though investigators said early in the case that terrorism was considered unlikely.

The scale of the response tells you how rare something like this is in Switzerland. Police spokesperson Bernhard Graser called the incident “truly extraordinary” and “unique in recent years,” and the entire Aargau cantonal force was mobilized for the search, with German police in Freiburg assisting across the border before the arrest was made.

The event’s organizers didn’t try to dress any of it up. “The vicious attack on the guests of the Aarauer Rave has broken our hearts,” they said in a statement. “A rave should always be a place of joy and love. Never a place where people are killed.”

That last line is really the whole story. Dance floors are supposed to be the safe place, and this week has been a hard reminder that keeping them that way takes actual work — it comes just days after Electric Picnic’s organizers spent a weekend answering their own crowd-safety questions. Police in Aarau say the investigation is ongoing, and we’ll update this story if further details about the suspect or a motive are released.