In the case of the Würzburg knife attack, the investigators are not yet able to answer the pressing question of “why”.
Meanwhile, courageous citizens of the city take center stage.
Würzburg - The brave helpers from Würzburg are praised all over the country, give countless interviews and are now to be officially recognized.
Bavaria's Prime Minister Markus Söder (CSU) wants to award the courageous citizens who opposed the knife on Friday with the Bavarian Rescue Medal. According to a spokesman, the Mainstadt is also considering how to honor these people. At the same time, the investigators at the State Office of Criminal Investigation are working flat out to solve the crime. Evidence suggests an Islamist background. The perpetrator could also be mentally ill and possibly incapable of guilt. He has been investigated before.
"You have shown the highest level of moral courage," said Söder on Monday of the "Main Post" with a view to the helpers.
The Bavarian Rescue Medal is a state award for people who have saved others from mortal danger at the risk of their own lives - a spokeswoman for the State Chancellery in Munich said it was not yet known how many people should receive the rescue medal.
A Somali had stabbed people in downtown Würzburg on Friday afternoon, apparently without warning, whom he probably did not know.
Three women died and seven people were injured.
The 24-year-old is in custody in Würzburg - for triple murder, attempted murder and dangerous bodily harm as well as willful bodily harm.
Before he was arrested, passers-by had filmed the man walking barefoot through the city with a knife in his hand.
The clips that were circulated on the internet showed people trying to overpower the attacker.
One man attacked the 24-year-old with a broom, others were walking with chairs in hand.
One of these brave men is Chia Rabiei.
According to his own words, the Kurd with Iranian citizenship has lived in Germany for 18 months, currently in an asylum seeker accommodation in Würzburg.
"I tried to keep him busy until the police came," Rabiei told the German press agency.
Videos of these scenes show how the Kurd repeatedly opposes the Somali and defends himself with a backpack.
Dietrich Winter and two friends, whom he says he has known since childhood, also intervened: “Chairs, bottles - we tried everything. But that didn't distract him, ”the 21-year-old told the dpa. "I felt it was my job to warn everyone and get them away from here as quickly as possible."
There is still much speculation about what motivated migrants to stab their victims with extreme brutality. The objects found in the perpetrator's homeless shelter in Würzburg are currently being assessed by Islamic scholars. "But we are nowhere near as far as we can say we have evaluated it," said a spokesman for the State Criminal Police Office (LKA) in Munich. The finds also include two cell phones. "We assume that they belong to him." He did not say which other items are now being examined and assessed.
Meanwhile, it became known that the man had already been investigated for dangerous bodily harm: Between 2015 and 2019, he lived in Saxony and was targeted by the Chemnitz public prosecutor there. The reason for this was a physical altercation in an asylum center. The investigation was then closed. First, “Die Welt” reported on the case in Saxony.
Perhaps the perpetrator was mentally confused or is mentally ill, as investigators have repeatedly pointed out since the attack. However, it is also examined whether Islamist attitudes could have contributed to the act. State Interior Minister Joachim Herrmann (CSU): "In view of what we have found, there is a lot to suggest that it could be an Islamistically motivated act," said the CSU politician on Sunday evening in the "Bild live" talk "The right questions ".
Rampage of a mentally ill person or terrorism?
In other cases, too, it was difficult to distinguish clearly.
In August 2020, an Iraqi targeted rammed cars and motorcycles on Berlin's city motorway and injured six people.
According to the public prosecutor's office, his motives were “delusively religious and Islamist”.
He is threatened with admission to a psychiatric clinic.
The Hanau attacker who shot nine people with foreign roots in February 2020 was also mentally ill.
According to a posthumous report, it was not only right-wing extremist views but also delusions that triggered the attack.
Mental problems were also initially mentioned after a Palestinian stabbed a customer in a Hamburg supermarket in 2017 and injured several.
However, the expert declared the then 27-year-old, who had Islamist motives, to be fully culpable.
What the authorities in Munich in 2016 initially classified as an “acute terrorist situation” turned out to be an act of violence by a mentally ill individual perpetrator.
An 18-year-old German-Iranian shot nine people and himself at the Olympic shopping center.
His motives: bullying, psychological problems and a right-wing radicalism.
The lawyer for the knife attacker from Würzburg expects that the mental state of his client will be examined again by an expert. "Of course, a new psychiatric examination must be carried out," said attorney Hanjo Schrepfer. The migrant was known to the police for threats and insults even before the crime on Friday, so he was temporarily taken to a psychiatric hospital. The proceedings are still ongoing and the psychiatric report is pending after an incident in January in his homeless shelter. dpa
