Status: 06/27/2021 4:10 a.m.
In Würzburg today the victims of the knife attack will be remembered at a funeral service. The background to the attack remains unclear. An arrest warrant was issued against the suspect.
After the fatal knife attack in Würzburg, the victims of the attack are to be remembered today. There will be a commemoration in the city’s Kilians Cathedral in the afternoon. In addition to the Catholic Würzburg bishop Franz Jung, representatives of other religions and the public also want to take part, as Lord Mayor Christian Schuchardt (CDU) announced.
An arrest warrant was issued against the alleged perpetrator yesterday. He killed three women and seriously injured at least five people on Friday. According to the public prosecutor’s office, the man is legally in Germany in the course of an asylum procedure. He was shot in the thigh when he was arrested.
Motive after knife attack still unclear: arrest warrant issued against the attacker from Würzburg
Albrecht Rauh, BR, daily topics 11:15 p.m., 6/26/2021
Background still unclear
When looking for a motive, the investigators have not yet finally found it. It was unclear to what extent the psyche of the 24-year-old Somali had played a role and to what extent Islamist attitudes had contributed to the act, said Bavaria’s Interior Minister Joachim Herrmann on Saturday.
The officials also assumed that it was a lone perpetrator. According to Herrmann, several of the at least five seriously injured people in the knife attack are still fighting for their lives. He hoped they could recover.
Suspect behavioral
The Lower Franconian police chief Gerhard Kallert described at the press conference that the perpetrator had taken the murder weapon in the household goods department of a department store and stabbed a saleswoman who succumbed to her injuries with the knife. The two other fatalities were also women whom the man attacked in the department store.
According to the police, the arrested person is a Somali citizen who lives in a shelter for the homeless in Würzburg. In the recent past, among other things, he had been noticed because of an attack on roommates, said the Bamberg Attorney General Wolfgang Gründler, and was temporarily admitted to a psychiatric institution. The Somali has lived in Germany since 2015, enjoys subsidiary protection as part of an asylum procedure and is therefore legally in the country.
Assessment of the ARD terrorism expert Georg Mascolo
The press conference made it clear: The search for the motive for the bloody act in Würzburg is difficult. For years, not only in Germany, investigators have been observing that the lines between clearly terrorist-motivated acts and psychologically suspicious perpetrators are sometimes difficult to draw. Some murderers charge their act with a supposedly greater political or religious significance – also in the hope of the greatest possible response and public attention.
It is crucial to clarify the question of the motive as well as possible: only precise clarification provides possible answers on how future acts can be prevented.
In view of the difficult and sometimes impossible demarcation between terror and madness, the North Rhine-Westphalian Interior Minister Herbert Reul has just presented a new concept at the Interior Ministers’ Conference last week. The aim is to identify potential assassins with mental health problems early on – and to prevent them from doing so – through close cooperation between the police and health authorities.
Arrest warrant issued
The arrest warrant is for triple murder and sixfold attempted murder, said the suspect’s public defender, Hanjo Schrepfer. His client is liable despite the leg shot. After talking to the 24-year-old, he has not yet recognized any Islamist motives. According to witnesses, the 24-year-old is said to have shouted “Allahu Akbar” during the crime.
Prime Minister Söder spoke of “shocking events” and ordered mourning flags for the Free State.
Bavaria’s Prime Minister Markus Söder ordered a nationwide mourning flag. As announced by the State Chancellery in Munich, it applies to all government offices in Bavaria up to and including Monday. The municipalities, rural districts and districts are therefore asked to proceed in the same way. “The act of Würzburg is incredible and shocking,” said Söder. “Bavaria shows solidarity. We mourn with the relatives of the victims and fear for the injured.”
The federal government also expressed its dismay at the act. “The investigation will reveal what drove the gunman in Würzburg,” wrote Chancellor Angela Merkel’s (CDU) spokesman, Steffen Seibert, on Twitter. “One thing is certain: His horrific act is directed against all humanity and every religion.”
“Appalling Act of Violence”
Federal President Frank-Walter Steinmeier spoke of an “appalling act of violence”. The perpetrator acted extremely brutally. For this he is held accountable by the rule of law.
Federal Interior Minister Horst Seehofer declared that he had “promised Bavaria any support”. The security forces would do everything to support a quick clarification of the background. Seehofer was also “deeply shaken” by the fact. “For all we know, it is thanks to the courageous intervention of courageous men and women in Würzburg and the determined action of the police that worse things were prevented,” he said. “This selfless commitment deserves the highest recognition.”
Press conference on the knife attack in Würzburg
Andreas Schuster, rbb, 6/26/2021 3:47 p.m.