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Crime scene in Trier
Photo: THILO SCHMUELGEN / REUTERS
At least five dead, 14 injured and one city in mourning: In Trier, the investigations are underway after the momentous rampage on Tuesday.
An urgent suspect is Bernd W., a 51-year-old man who, according to the police, was arrested around four minutes after the first emergency call.
W. is to be brought before the judge on Monday.
The 51-year-old is said to have been heavily drunk at the time of the crime.
According to the prosecutor, there are indications of a mental illness.
The judicial authority must therefore still decide whether to apply for pre-trial detention or placement in a psychiatric facility.
According to the public prosecutor's office, the man had targeted people in the pedestrian zone in an off-road vehicle.
Five people died, including a nine-week-old baby.
14 people were injured.
In addition to the baby, the fatalities include three women aged 25, 52 and 73 years as well as the 45-year-old father of the child.
They all come from Trier.
The baby's mother survived and, according to the authorities, is in the hospital as well as her one and a half year old son.
According to the Interior Minister of Rhineland-Palatinate, Roger Lewentz (SPD), the suspect was zigzagging in the city center with the car that he had apparently borrowed from an acquaintance.
W. was drunk at the time of the crime, he was found to be 1.4 per thousand.
According to the investigators, he lived in the car in the days before the crime.
The native of Trier is now under investigation - for murder, attempted murder and dangerous bodily harm.
The man's motive is still unclear, but the investigators have so far ruled out a political or religious background.
There is also no evidence of accomplices or accomplices of the arrested person.
In total, more than 750 police, emergency and rescue services from the region were on duty.
According to the police, the behavior of many passers-by "who had already taken care of the injured person by the time the emergency services arrived and provided first aid" was exemplary.
After the act, the city center was cordoned off for further investigations.
During the night, the crime scene work was completed and the pedestrian zone was opened again.
"This event shakes all of Germany"
Mayor Wolfram Leibe (SPD) spoke of the blackest day for the city in post-war history after the rampage.
On Wednesday morning at 10 a.m., the victims will be remembered at the Trier landmark Porta Nigra.
The Rhineland-Palatinate Interior Minister Lewentz compared the incident with the Ramstein air day disaster 32 years ago.
"This event shakes all of Germany," said the SPD politician on Tuesday evening in Trier.
He announced that in Rhineland-Palatinate all flags on public buildings would be set at half mast.
It is »the very worst« that people have »lost their lives«, said the Rhineland-Palatinate Prime Minister Malu Dreyer about the events in her hometown.
The SPD politician visited the injured party and expressed her condolences to the relatives of the victims.
Chancellor Angela Merkel also expressed her deep concern in a statement.
Mourning and prayers
The chairman of the German Bishops' Conference, Bishop Georg Bätzing, was deeply shocked.
"In this hour of speechlessness and grief, I am connected to the victims, the deceased, the injured and the relatives," he said on Tuesday evening.
“And I think of all those who witnessed this crime up close.
As a former Trier, the disturbing images from the city center leave me with anger, horror and deep sadness. "
In Trier Cathedral, more than a hundred people prayed for the dead, the injured and their relatives on Tuesday evening.
"A terrible day for Trier is coming to an end," said Stephan Ackermann, Bishop of Trier.
“We are gathered here in the cathedral and in other churches in our city that evening, stunned and sad.” Not only Trier is “in shock at the brutal act of violence”.
First and foremost, think of the dead who "fell victim to an act of blind rage," said Ackermann.
"And we think of their families," said the bishop.
Prayers were also made for the injured, the rescue workers and people traumatized by the crime.
Leibe spoke of the "blackest day in Trier since the Second World War".
"I can't understand how anyone can get the idea of driving an SUV through town and killing people."
The day was a "really bad and terrible day for the relatives," said Prime Minister Dreyer.
In the middle of a normal day, people were torn from their lives.
"It's just very bad for all of us."
Let her thoughts go to the injured and seriously injured, and hope and pray that they survived and recovered.
Concrete barriers from the Christmas market were missing due to the pandemic
Unlike in previous years, the city center of Trier was not secured against such attacks with concrete barriers, because due to the corona pandemic there was no Christmas market.
"There is no such thing as comprehensive security," said Mayor Leibe.
And: "You can't look inside people."
Icon: The mirror
ala / dpa
