Two U.S. service members were in military custody Monday after they were arrested in connection with a fatal stabbing in Germany, authorities said.
An unidentified 28-year-old man was killed Saturday when a fight broke out between several people at a fair in Wittlich, a town in western Germany. Four people, two men and two women, were spotted running from the scene after the altercation, German police said.
Investigators confirmed the identities of two of the male suspects as 25- and 26-year-old U.S. military personnel who had visited the fair with friends.
“The public prosecutor’s office in Trier, therefore, hands over the case to the American prosecuting authorities in accordance with NATO troop statute,” German police said in a statement.
According to local media reports, the suspected assailants are assigned to Spangdahlem Air Base, near Wittlich. The Air Force’s Office of Special Investigations will take over the case, German officials said.
Authorities have not released the identities of the victim or the U.S. service members accused in the case.