Saxony-Anhalt's interior minister was prepared. Holger Stahlknecht had brought a report to the press conference in the Halle police station. Minute after minute he read how the assassination of Halle expired.
The 27-year-old right-wing extremist Stephan Balliet had tried on Wednesday to storm a synagogue in Halle, he later shot dead two people and injured several other people.
Read the cover story of the SPIEGEL: "Stream is running"
His act was streamed by the attacker into the internet. The video shows not only the brutal attack - but also how long Balliet was able to act without interference from the police: about 15 minutes. How did that happen? And why did he manage to drive away, even though the police had already asked him?
The chairman of the Jewish community of Halle, Max Privorozki, was in the synagogue during the attack. He later criticized that it had taken too long for the police to be there. He told the Jewish Forum, "They were too late on the ground." It took ten minutes, though he said it was an armed attack on the synagogue.
Privorozki reports that the 51 people in the synagogue, including guests from the US, continued the #JomKippur worship service after the attack. The police criticized him: Only 10 minutes after the emergency call, she appeared at the synagogue. [Video 2/2] # hal0910 #hall # anti-Semitism pic.twitter.com/ydCD59nMOL
- Jewish Forum (@JFDA_eV) October 9, 2019According to Interior Minister Stahlknecht, the alert was as follows:
12:01 clock begins the attack. The assassin reaches the synagogue, tries to open a door and throws an explosive device over the wall. Shortly thereafter, he shoots a 40-year-old passerby.
12:03 clock is the first emergency call from the synagogue at the rescue center.
12.04 clock is informed the police.
12.11 clock arrive the first officials at the synagogue - but the culprit was already there.
According to Stahlknecht, seven minutes passed between informing the police and the arrival of the officers. For people in fear of death, seven minutes were like seven weeks, according to Stahlknecht.
The interior minister said that they had 25 reports and 23 events. According to information from SPIEGEL TV was at times the police from a so-called chaosphase. That includes an unclear informational situation in which forces are required and collected.
The further events in chronological order:
12:10 clock seeks the assassin - frustrated at his failure in front of the synagogue - a new target. He attacks a doner kebab about 500 meters from the synagogue. He apparently fired indiscriminately at passersby and killed a craftsman.
12:16 clock the offender wants to drive off - and meets the police for the first time, a single patrol car crosses the street. 15 minutes have passed since the attack on the synagogue.
The terrorist hides behind his car and keeps firing at the officers. He meets the patrol car, a bullet of police injured him on the neck. Reinforcement is not visible. The assassin manages to get back into his gulf, drives off - and escapes the officials.
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How could this happen? The attacker had driven at high speed in a side street, said the director of the police inspection hall, Mario Schwan, at the press conference. "The officers who followed him lost sight-seeing." And that, although a tire of the offender is flattened, because he had previously shot him by mistake. A SPIEGEL analysis of the offender video shows that Balliet accelerates his car at this point to around 60 kilometers per hour.
12.18 clock the assassin drives past the synagogue again. There are already officials, according to the Interior Minister. The video shows a single trunk lid of a police car, but there are no sirens to hear. The right-wing terrorist also does not speak in his video of police officers - before the snack he had commented on their presence yet. So he drives only a few meters past the police car, noticeable attempts to stop him or to pursue it does not exist at this point.
The assassin flees on larger roads in a southerly direction, a short time later he throws his cell phone out of the window. Later he tries to hijack another vehicle and shoots at two people who are seriously injured. He finally robs a taxi and drives from the A9 on the B91 south. He causes a traffic accident in which nobody is injured.
At 13:38 , the police arrested him near Werschen - some 40 kilometers south of Halle.
