Knife attack in Duisburg
A man stabs two elementary school students. Then it turns out: He probably had more in mind
After the knife attack on two children in Duisburg, forensics come to the crime scene
© Christoph Reichwein / DPA
The perpetrator was probably already known to the police and public prosecutor’s office. But by the time the authorities took action, it was almost too late. Has the justice system failed?
Several weeks before the knife attack on two elementary school children The Duisburg police are said to have had information about the suspect’s murder plans. A witness reported to the police in Straubing, Bavaria, on January 8th because an acquaintance of a man he did not personally know had received an “assassination attack” announced in a chat for September 2024. This emerges from a report published on Wednesday by the North Rhine-Westphalian Ministry of Justice to the legal committee of the state parliament in Düsseldorf.
The public prosecutor’s office was probably in no particular hurry
According to the report, a picture sent in the chat showed the suspected murder weapons that were seized after the crime in Duisburg at the end of February. In addition, it was clear from the videos that the 21-year-old German-Bulgarian shared that he was glorifying serial killers.
The Straubing police identified the suspect as the sender of the message and forwarded the files to the responsible public prosecutor’s office on January 19th, it said. There the matter was forwarded to the Duisburg public prosecutor’s office, where the files were received a good month later, on February 15th.
The “cover sheet for transmission” did not indicate any particular urgency, the report states. Five days later, proceedings for disturbing the public peace by threatening criminal offenses were initiated against the 21-year-old.
Among other things, a search warrant was issued against the man, but was no longer implemented before the crime on February 28th. An examination by the supervisory authority will examine whether there were delays by the authorities in North Rhine-Westphalia due to an incorrectly entered file number, a lack of telephone warning and documents that were not provided. It initially remained unclear whether Bavarian investigators were also affected.
Perpetrator in psychiatric hospital after knife attack
After the knife attack on a nine-year-old girl and a ten-year-old boy in Duisburg, an arrest warrant was initially issued against the alleged attacker for two counts of attempted murder. Two knives and a hammer were seized as possible murder weapons.
The suspect has been in a psychiatric hospital since Tuesday because doubts about his guilt arose during the course of the investigation, the Duisburg public prosecutor’s office announced on Wednesday. The arrest warrant against the 21-year-old has now been converted into a so-called detention order.
The two children whose heads the man stabbed could have left the hospital by now. They were probably random victims. They were seriously but not life-threateningly injured, the report said.