Würzburg knife attack: The motif remains open

After the knife attack in Würzburg, the investigators are trying to find out what drove the alleged perpetrator. The evidence of Islamist terrorism has not recently been confirmed.

The investigators of the Bavarian State Criminal Police Office (LKA) are trying with great effort to clarify the motive for the terrible act in Würzburg. Abdirahman JA is considered to be mentally ill, he had already attracted attention in the past and was therefore admitted to a clinic. However, there are also indications that it could be an Islamist terrorist attack. A security guard recalls that he was told to say “Allahu akbar!” have called out Arabic for “God is great”.

“I do jihad”

Then there is the statement that Abdirahman JA is said to have made to a policewoman who examined him after his arrest in the hospital in Kitzingen. At around 7:25 pm, the officer stated, the Somali is said to have suddenly said, “I am doing jihad”, “without prior addressing or questioning”.

So was the knife attack in Würzburg the act of a mentally ill person or was it Islamist terrorism? At first it was said that there were “blatant indications” of a radical Islamic background to the crime. The results of the investigation so far could not substantiate this suspicion.

No Islamist clues found

Two of Abdirahman JA’s cell phones have since been evaluated, no jihadist propaganda, no beheading videos or the like have been found, nor any extremist chats, or even indications that JA had been instructed in his act by a jihadist somewhere in the world. Also, contrary to initial media reports, material from the terrorist militia “Islamic State” (IS) was not found in his room in the Würzburg homeless shelter. The investigators discovered only two prayer rugs and a prayer chain.

Shortly before his act, Abdirahman JA had sent a WhatsApp message to a Somali cell phone number. It was probably a farewell message, it said that we would meet again in paradise. Islamist statements, however, were not found in the message. The investigators were able to identify the recipient. It is the mother of the asylum seeker. On June 27, two days after the day, she received a call from the German police. Just like the assassin’s ex-wife, who has been divorced from him since 2016. Both stated that Abdirahman JA was by no means a radical extremist.

Abdirahman JA is silent about the motive for the crime

A former roommate of the Somali had reported to the authorities earlier this year. He said he overheard a phone call from Abdirahman JA years ago. He said that he had fought with the Al-Shabaab terrorist militia in Somalia and that he had also carried out attacks. The information reached the Federal Prosecutor General in Karlsruhe, who was responsible for terrorism proceedings. The statements were followed up, but there was no evidence whatsoever, and the matter was viewed more as an attempt to denounce. In the meantime, the former roommate was asked again, now it is said that it was probably just a misunderstanding.

The investigators hoped that Abdirahman JA himself would clarify more about why he became a murderer on June 25th. But he has been silent so far and will probably continue to do so. A survey should actually take place this week, but it will probably not be there after all. Because for this the assassin would have to give his consent. His public defender, Hans-Jochen Schrepfer, says that in the hours after the crime, his client was “in another world”, “as if stepped away.” A conversation was impossible. Instead, the perpetrator talked to himself, “sometimes also screamed.”