Petra Schelm was a German member of the Red Army Faction far-left terrorist group.
10 Facts About Petra Schelm
2.
Petra Schelm was killed in a shootout with the police and was the first RAF member to die in a police operation, being shot in Hamburg when caught in a massive cordon and search operation in northern Germany in July, 1971.
3.
Petra Schelm was active with Ulrike Meinhof and Horst Mahler in the working group on renting and living in the Markisches district of Berlin, which was dedicated to the "re-socialization of marginalized social communities".
4.
At the time of her death, Petra Schelm had not had any contact with her parents for a long time.
5.
Petra Schelm had introduced Manfred Grashof to her parents, who asked her father for his daughter's hand in marriage.
6.
On 15 July 1971 Petra Schelm was driving through Hamburg with Werner Hoppe when she sped her BMW, a stolen BMW, through a police roadblock.
7.
Hoppe was followed by a police helicopter and was caught and arrested, but Petra Schelm did not surrender.
8.
Petra Schelm threw away a jacket she was holding to reveal a handgun and fired at the police, but the police returned fire.
9.
Jillian Becker states that Petra Schelm was killed by a burst of gunfire from a submachine gun, but Stefan Aust states that it was a single bullet wound to the head that killed Petra Schelm.
10.
Additionally, a closeup photograph of Petra Schelm taken at the scene immediately after her death clearly shows a single gunshot wound through the eye.