Wuppertal: The status of the investigation into the knife attack at a glance

questions and answers
What the investigators know about the knife attack at the high school in Wuppertal

One day after the attack at a high school in Wuppertal, investigators announced new information about the crime, victims and suspects. This is the status of the investigation.

In the early afternoon, the Düsseldorf police and the public prosecutor’s office Wuppertal jointly informed about the investigation into the knife attack at the Wilhelm-Dörpfeld-Gymnasium in Wuppertal-Elberfeld. Colin Rinderz, head of police operations, and public prosecutor Patrick Penders from the Wuppertal public prosecutor’s office answered the press’ questions.

What is currently known and what still needs to be determined – an overview:

The victims

The Wuppertal public prosecutor’s office was able to announce on Friday morning: The students injured in the attack are all out of danger. They are 16 and 17 years old and some of them are in the same grade as the suspect.

In addition, three students suffered shock.

The suspect

The suspected perpetrator is a 17-year-old who was born in Wuppertal.

When the police arrived, he was sitting in a break room with a teacher and had already been disarmed by the teacher. When he saw the police, the teenager is said to have become upset and said that the police should shoot him. The police were then able to handcuff him without using weapons.

The suspect was seriously injured and in the hospital. He was arrested and a judge will decide today on the arrest warrant requested by the public prosecutor.

The act

On Thursday morning around 9:52 a.m. the emergency call from the high school was received by the Wuppertal police control center. Four students were reported injured. The police classified the crime as an act of amok.

The public prosecutor assumes that the suspect entered the school armed with a knife and suddenly stabbed him. According to the public prosecutor’s office, a teacher was able to persuade the young person to give up. It is said that the teenager put down his weapon “when spoken to by a teacher.”

The murder weapon

So far, investigators believe that only a single knife was used in the rampage. According to the information, these are folding knives with a six to eight centimeter long blade. The knife was confiscated.

The motif

The investigators found a letter at the crime scene that is said to have come from the suspected student. “The content of this letter in which he confesses to the crime suggests that the 17-year-old has a mental illness,” said prosecutor Patrick Penders. He assumes that this also explains the motive for the crime.

with DPA