Police officers in Berlin on July 26 fatally shot a man who they believe killed a woman and injured 29 others in an attack at the city’s annual Pride event on July 25.
Hundreds of thousands of people were in attendance on July 25 for Berlin’s Christopher Street Day event — named after the original Christopher Street Liberation Day March in New York City in 1970 — at the Tiergarten, a park in the middle of Berlin. At about 10 p.m., a white minivan drove down a street heading out of the park and struck people with the vehicle, which subsequently crashed into a tree, according to the New York Times.
After crashing the vehicle, the attacker exited the minivan with an object that appeared to be a machete. Authorities have not yet released further information about the victims, though Polish officials noted that the woman who died was Polish.
The suspected assailant, known as Abdul B. (his full name is withheld due to privacy laws), was a 21-year-old citizen of Germany whose family hailed from Lebanon. Officials in Berlin, including Alexander Dobrint, the federal interior minister, and Kai Wegner, the Berlin mayor, described the attack as most likely an example of “Islamist terror.”
The suspect had long faced trouble with the law. Prosecutors in Germany on July 26 said he went to Lebanon and planned to go to Syria to join the Islamic State in May of last year. In July of last year, he was arrested in Lebanon, where he spent three months in prison for incitement to religious and sectarian conflict, according to the New York Times. Upon his return to Germany, he was arrested in Berlin and spent six months in pretrial detention.
In May of this year, he was given a suspended sentence on probation by a German juvenile court, which acknowledged that he distanced himself from ISIS and had spent nine months incarcerated in Germany and Lebanon. However, Berlin prosecutors sought a longer sentence.
Police tracked the suspect down a day after the attack after searching train stations, airports, and the country’s border. He was found in the western part of Berlin, where police say he charged at them with a weapon, prompting officers to fire on him. Emergency medical responders unsuccessfully sought to revive him, and he died at the scene.
“What a heinous act in Berlin,” German Chancellor Friedrich Merz wrote on X, according to a translated version of the post. “Hundreds of thousands of people from all over the world were peacefully celebrating at Christopher Street Day. They wanted us to treat each other with kindness and tolerance. This is an attack on our society.”
The chancellor, citing the suspect’s recent release from prison, suggested at a news conference on July 27 that the country’s terrorism laws need to be strengthened.
“If we cannot detain such potential offenders, we must do everything we can to restrict their freedom of movement as much as possible,” Merz said.
Berlin’s official Christopher Street Day website posted a statement from organizers in the aftermath of the attack.
“We at Berliner CSD e. V. / Berlin Pride are deeply profoundly saddened by yesterday’s events,” the statement noted on July 26. “Our thoughts are with the victims, their families and all those affected by this terrible incident. The safety of our guests, staff, and partners is our top priority. We are in close contact with the relevant authorities and are following their recommendations. We would like to thank the emergency services and all those who have helped for their efforts. We will issue a more detailed statement in due course. Our sympathy goes out to all those affected.”
