Investigators are assuming the 29-year-old was amok

After the fatal car drive of a 29-year-old on Wednesday morning in Berlin-Charlottenburg, there are growing indications of a mental illness in the man. Investigators are now assuming it was an amok attack. “According to the latest information, today’s events on Tauentzienstrasse represent an amoktat by a mentally handicapped person,” Berlin Senator for the Interior, Iris Spranger (SPD), said on Twitter on Wednesday evening.

Spranger had previously ruled out the political background to the crime. Documents and posters with political statements were found in the crime vehicle. On the part of the Office for the Protection of the Constitution, there was nothing against the man, Spranger emphasized on Wednesday in the rbb24 evening show. She announced a mourning flag in Berlin for Thursday and expressed her condolences to the victims’ families.

Police President Barbara Slowik also emphasized that there is currently no relevant knowledge of a political act. Slowik called on witnesses who have footage of the incident to send it to the Berlin police information portal [be.hinweisportal.de] to send. The investigations continued under high pressure and have now been taken over by a homicide commission, the police chief emphasized on Wednesday evening on rbb television.

On Wednesday evening, the police were still securing evidence on site. According to the officials there, the preservation of evidence should run until late Wednesday evening. The aim is to open the road again. According to investigators, the on-site investigations will continue on Thursday.

A special police task force searched the apartment of the 29-year-old driver. Nothing is known about the results. According to information from the German Press Agency, the man was driving a car that belonged to his older sister. He is said to have been known to the police, but not in connection with extremism. The driver is said to have mental problems, police said. In this context, a rampage on the A100 city motorway in August 2020 was mentioned when another driver deliberately rammed three motorcyclists. He was committed to psychiatry by the court.

A teacher from Hesse was killed in the incident around 10:30 a.m. near the Berlin Memorial Church. According to the fire department, six people were fatally injured and three were seriously injured. According to the police on Wednesday evening, they assume a total of around 20 injuries, but a specific number cannot be given due to the dynamic situation.

According to the police, 14 students in a tenth grade were among the injured, and according to the current status, a teacher was seriously injured. The Hessian state government announced that the teacher was in Berlin with the class from Bad Arolsen in northern Hesse.

Hesse’s Minister of Education, Alexander Lorz (CDU), said: “We immediately sent emergency care teams to Bad Arolsen to help relatives, classmates and teachers.” A team from the school is on its way to Berlin to support the young people on site and their parents.

As police spokesman Thilo Cablitz said on the spot, the driver initially drove into a crowd on Tauentzienstrasse near Rankestrasse. Then he drove back onto the street and came to a stop in a shop at the corner of Marburger Straße.

According to the spokesman, passers-by were able to hold the driver of the car. As police spokeswoman Anja Dierschke told rbb, the 29-year-old arrested person last lived in Berlin. The police were on site for several hours with 130 emergency services, plus around 100 firefighters.

On Wednesday evening, the victims were commemorated in the Memorial Church. Numerous politicians were also present, including the Governing Mayor Franziska Giffey (SPD). “Brutal violence” broke out on unsuspecting people during the incident on Wednesday, said General Superintendent Ulrike Trautwein at the prayer service. “Such a situation leaves us speechless.” Many witnesses and those affected still have the screams of the people in their ears, said Trautwein. After the incident, eyewitnesses received pastoral care in the Memorial Church. Around 100 people took advantage of the offer.

A spokesman for Federal Interior Minister Nancy Faeser (SPD) said she had already spoken to her Berlin counterpart several times. However, it is still too early to speculate about the background to the incident. The investigation is in full swing.

Federal President Frank-Walter Steinmeier has said that his thoughts are with the seriously and very seriously injured, the fatalities and those who had to experience terrible things.

The district mayor of Charlottenburg-Wilmersdorf, Kirstin Bauch (Bündnis 90/Die Grünen), also expressed her horror. You feel reminded of the pictures after the speeding accident in 2016 in almost the same place. She said everything must be done to prevent such fatal accidents in the future.

The CDU parliamentary group leader in the Berlin House of Representatives, Kai Wegner, told rbb that it was now important to clarify the background. It’s important to hold back here. Everything has to be carefully researched and researched.

The leaders of the Die Linke parliamentary group in the House of Representatives, Anne Helmund and Carsten Schatz, said they were deeply shocked by the news of the death of a person and numerous injuries in Charlottenburg. Her heartfelt sympathy goes to the victims and their families. We wish everyone who was injured a speedy and full recovery.

In December 2016, an Islamist assassin drove into a Christmas market near the Memorial Church. At that time 13 people died and more than 70 were injured.

Broadcast: rbb24 special broadcast, 08.06.2022, 12:25 p.m