Knife attack and arrest warrant for murder: what we know after the death of the 14-year-old - and what not
Created: 06/12/2022, 18:47
By: Kathrin Reikowski
A woman lights a candle at the scene of a knife attack.
The day before, two girls were attacked by a man, and a 14-year-old died from her injuries.
© Bernd Weißbrod/dpa
On Monday, two girls were attacked with a knife on the way to school.
A 14-year-old later died in hospital.
An arrest warrant was issued for the perpetrator.
Illerkirchberg (Ulm) - On Monday in Illerkirchberg near Ulm (Baden-Württemberg) two girls were attacked by a man on their way to school.
A 14-year-old girl died in hospital at noon, the 13-year-old companion survived with serious injuries and is not life-threatening.
The man was arrested by the police.
Because he lived in a shelter for refugees, the crime became a political issue.
In their statement after the crime, the police appealed "not to have any general suspicion of strangers, those seeking protection or asylum seekers in general or to encourage or support such suspicions".
You are aware "that events of this kind stir up fears and emotions".
What is known about the act and its background - and what is not.
The deadly knife attack in Illerkirchberg has several dimensions:
The personal suffering of family and friends of a girl who died much too early.
A (young) woman was killed by an (elderly) man.
So you could call the murder femicide - the murder of a man by a woman.
The man allegedly committed the crime with a knife.
There is already a debate about this.
A girl with a so-called migration background is murdered: the Turkish community is demanding clarification, but the AfD is also heavily involved in the debate about public security.
The perpetrator lived in accommodation for refugees: the alleged murderer comes from the civil war country Eritrea and apparently entered the country through the right to asylum.
There is a nationwide, but also a local debate.
Knife attack in Illerkirchberg: What we know about the course of events - and what not
First of all: The police and public prosecutor's office have so far only published that a man attacked two girls on the way to school on Monday and seriously injured them.
One of the victims, a 14-year-old girl, had to be resuscitated at the scene before being taken to a hospital.
She died there hours later.
More is not yet known.
An autopsy on the body revealed that the girl was bleeding from .
An eyewitness spoke to the SWR about loud noises at a traffic light and that he was able to speak to the companion of the 14-year-old.
The 13-year-old was then taken to hospital with serious injuries.
There is repeated talk of a knife attack, but that has not been officially confirmed either.
After that, the alleged perpetrator is said to have run to a refugee shelter, where he was arrested along with two other men.
The other two men are free again.
The alleged perpetrator was also taken to the hospital with serious stab wounds, where he was operated on under police guard.
In the morning he exercised his right to remain silent and did not comment on the crime.
The police have not yet published any further details about the course of events.
It is not known whether the man and the two victims knew each other.
According to Baden-Württemberg Interior Minister Thomas Strobl (CDU), there is no evidence that the man could have acted out of religious motives.
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Knife attack: what is known about the 13- and 14-year-old victims
The girl killed is said to have been 14 years old and on the way to school with her companion.
The Alevi community in Ulm has published words of condolences to the family on its Facebook page and announced that it intends to hold a funeral service.
The girl is said to have been German, but her family was apparently from Turkey and is a member of the community.
According to information from a police spokesman, the second girl who was attacked spent the night in the hospital and received medical care.
The 13-year-old was injured so badly that in her case there may also be suspicion of attempted murder.
Her mental state is difficult because she found out about the death of her friend.
Note: For reasons of piety, we made a conscious decision not to publish the names of the two girls.
Knife attack in Baden-Württemberg: This is known about the perpetrator - and not that
It is known that the alleged perpetrator is 27 years old and comes from the civil war country Eritrea.
He is said to have been in Germany for several years and to have lived here legally.
So far he has not been conspicuous for violent crimes.
In addition, it is still not clear whether he knew the two victims or whether he was mentally ill.
Investigations are underway on these points, or reports are being drawn up.
After the knife attack - what consequences the perpetrator faces
So far, according to investigators, there is no reliable knowledge about the motives for the crime and the mental state of the perpetrator.
The latter must first be clarified with a short report.
On Tuesday evening, the public prosecutor's office issued an arrest warrant for the man's murder and had him transferred to a prison hospital.
The second victim's injuries may also lead to attempted murder charges.
In Germany, murder and attempted murder carries a life sentence, which can be reduced to three to 15 years in certain cases.
If it can be proven that the man is innocent, he would have to go to a psychiatrist.
mental illness?
Migration researcher warns - "hangs on friends and diaspora churches"
dr
Magnus Driver researches migration and diaspora and has stayed in Eritrea several times for longer research stays.
"The fatal attack on two girls on the way to school must shock us all," he told
Merkur.de
.
He warns: "The act of violence may be an expression of a serious mental illness - and of course not all people who share the alleged perpetrator's country of origin, skin color or residence status should be held responsible for this." After the arrest warrant for murder became known, however, there was less evidence a mental illness in men.
After Driver's research stays in the region, one thing is clear to him: "Growing up in wartime societies - for example in the Horn of Africa - is characterized by violence and suffering, sometimes people are perpetrators and victims at the same time.
Under no circumstances can one completely escape mediated or physical experiences of violence there - and these often continue on the way through the desert and across the Mediterranean after a successful desertion and escape."
Leaving everything behind in the new country is usually not possible: "After all, the concern and responsibility towards those who stayed at home does not allow many a simple new start, even after a successful arrival." In the case of mental illnesses, it is particularly difficult to help people: "But it is also in such a way that people who come to Germany with experiences of violence from dictatorships and war zones do not simply get help here.
There is a lack of sufficient specialist staff to identify vulnerabilities, needs and illnesses, therapy places are rare and administrative processes are long," says Driver.
"It is often left to friends, family and diaspora churches to take care of newcomers."
Knife attack - the political dimension of the murder of a young woman in Illerkirchberg
Before the police published this information, it was known after some media research that the alleged perpetrator ran into a refugee shelter after – allegedly – stabbing the two girls.
In the evening, the police and prosecutors confirmed this information.
Voices could already be read on Twitter, for example, saying that children in this country were no longer safe because there were too many criminals without a right of residence in Germany.
The act happened shortly after Federal Minister of the Interior Nancy Faeser (SPD) had announced a change in citizenship law, sparking a heated debate.
In the evening, Faeser tweeted that she expressed her condolences to the relatives.
Voices came from the AfD that demand “to ensure security in public space.” (Alice Weidel) The co-party leader means specifically: “Send rejected asylum seekers, illegal migrants, criminal immigrants and those who are at risk consistently, immediately and without exception back to their countries of origin.” As described above, however, the man was apparently not a rejected asylum seeker, not illegal and had not previously appeared criminally.
The topic is apparently already being hotly debated locally.
As the
Südwestpresse
writes, there was apparently only a dispute at a local meeting at the end of November, at which the further accommodation of refugees was to be discussed.
Because there was unrest in front of the hall, the meeting had to be stopped.
After the murder of the 14-year-old, Ulm Mayor Gunter Czisch initially canceled similar planned meetings or postponed the items on the agenda.
Knife attack in Illerkirchberg - Similar case before
According to an SWR reporter, sadness, horror and anger prevail in Illerkirchberg on the evening of the violent act.
There is also a discussion in a local Facebook group.
"Murder and violence again.
Three men from Eritrea have been arrested.
And don't forget: The refugee home (sic!) has already been in the headlines with disgusting crimes by asylum seekers against underage girls..." writes a FB user in the local "Illerkirchberg - Black Board" group.
In the same area, a serious crime against a young woman took place in 2019.
One of the people who apparently lives in the neighborhood then replies that the two accommodations have nothing to do with each other, that the other accommodation is three kilometers away in another town.
In doing so, he resists drawing parallels between two cases in which there are no direct connections.
Are there more knife attacks in Germany?
The attack on two schoolgirls in Illkirchberg, Baden-Württemberg, could also give new impetus to the debate about knife attacks in Germany.
For the year 2021, this type of violence was publicly reported for the first time - and so far the only time.
According to this, a knife was used in 6.6 percent of the offenses or used as a threat.
Valid data nationwide can be expected for 2023 at the earliest, it said in September.
According to the Baden-Württemberg security report for 2021, 331 of the 1562 suspects in violent crime with knives were asylum seekers or refugees - a decrease of 19.3 percent compared to the first Corona year 2020. The rest were Germans (698 suspects) and other non-Germans (533).
There are several pitfalls in criminal statistics: First, only information from the police about suspects is recorded.
It is not clear whether a court would later actually convict them of being the perpetrators.
A study by the Zurich University of Applied Sciences found in 2018 that foreign perpetrators appear comparatively more frequently in the crime statistics because they are more likely to be reported than Germans, for example.
(dpa/kat)