HEIDELBERG, Germany — Two Heidelberg-based U.S. soldiers, one male and one female, were arrested early Saturday morning after an incident in the city’s old town area.
According to German police, the incident began about 2:20 a.m. when two German police officers on foot patrol saw the male soldier, 22, punch another man. The victim was a 34-year-old German, police said.
The officers went over to detain the soldier, who, on seeing them, had started to walk away, said Harald Kurzer, a spokesman for the Heidelberg police. One of the officers grabbed the soldier by the arm, Kurzer said, but he yanked it away, slightly injuring the officer in the face.
At that point, the other officer and two or three bystanders joined in to wrestle the soldier to the ground, where he was handcuffed, Kurzer said.
Then, a 20-year-old woman and fellow U.S. soldier came over and kicked one of the people helping wrestle her companion to the ground. The soldiers, who were not identified, were arrested.
They were taken to the Heidelberg police station where a blood- alcohol test was performed on each.
“Both were drunk,” Kurzer said. The male soldier had a blood-alcohol level of 1.9; the female’s was 2.1, according to the German method of measuring, he said. The two were turned over to U.S. military police. Kurzer said any prosecution of the case would be done by military authorities.
He said it appeared that no one was seriously injured in the incident.