According to Federal Prosecutor General Jens Rommel, the man responsible for the fatal knife attack on Mannheim’s market square is a radicalized individual perpetrator. It is a “special case”, an “individual case” that differs from other Islamist-influenced cases, said Rommel on Tuesday at his agency’s annual press conference in Karlsruhe. The Federal Prosecutor’s Office has so far seen no evidence of the man’s jihadist involvement.
At the end of May, the 25-year-old Afghan injured five participants in a rally of the anti-Islam movement Pax Europa (BPE) and a police officer with a knife on Mannheim’s market square. The 29-year-old officer Rouven Laur later succumbed to his injuries.
Another officer shot the attacker. He was subsequently operated on and could not be questioned at first. Rommel did not comment on the question of whether the man was now fit to be questioned.
The Federal Prosecutor’s Office took over the investigation a few days after the crime. They assume that the crime was motivated by religion. The accused resorted to massive violence, presumably to prevent criticism of Islam, said Rommel.
