<img height="1" width="1" style="display:none" src="https://www.facebook.com/tr?id=192888919167017&amp;ev=PageView&amp;noscript=1">
Thursday, March 28, 2024
March 28, 2024

Linkedin Pinterest

German suspect had explosives in his car, planned ‘massacre’

Prosecutor says he posted ‘manifesto’ online before attack

By GEIR MOULSON and PIETRO DE CRISTOFARO, Associated Press
Published: October 10, 2019, 6:16pm
3 Photos
A bullet hole is seen in a window of a kebab grill in Halle, Germany, Thursday, Oct. 10, 2019. A heavily armed assailant ranting about Jews tried to force his way into a synagogue in Germany on Yom Kippur, Judaism&#039;s holiest day, then shot two people to death nearby in an attack Wednesday that was livestreamed on a popular gaming site.
A bullet hole is seen in a window of a kebab grill in Halle, Germany, Thursday, Oct. 10, 2019. A heavily armed assailant ranting about Jews tried to force his way into a synagogue in Germany on Yom Kippur, Judaism's holiest day, then shot two people to death nearby in an attack Wednesday that was livestreamed on a popular gaming site. (AP Photo/Jens Meyer) (jens meyer/Associated Press) Photo Gallery

HALLE, Germany — The suspect in an attack on a German synagogue on Judaism’s holiest day had nearly nine pounds of explosives in his car and wanted to carry out a massacre, Germany’s top prosecutor said. Many questions remained about how the man was able to get hold of the weapons he used in the assault, in which two people outside were killed.

As officials sought to reassure an unsettled Jewish community and address concern about rising right-wing extremism, Germany’s president visited the scene of the attack and urged his nation to stand up for its Jewish compatriots.

The assailant — a German citizen identified by prosecutors as Stephan B. — tried but failed to force his way into the synagogue as around 80 people were inside. He shot and killed a woman in the street outside and a man at a kebab shop nearby. He is now in custody.

“What we experienced yesterday was terror,” said Peter Frank, the chief federal prosecutor. “The suspect, Stephan B., aimed to carry out a massacre in the synagogue in Halle.”

Frank said his weapons were “apparently homemade” and the explosives were built into “numerous devices.” The suspect, who livestreamed the attack on a popular gaming site while ranting in English about Jews and posted a “manifesto” online before embarking on it, “wanted to create a worldwide effect” and encourage others to imitate him, the prosecutor added.

He is suspected of two counts of murder, nine of attempted murder and other offenses, Frank said. His apartment was searched and investigators were sifting evidence, but “we face a lot of questions,” he added.

Those include how the suspect was radicalized, how he decided to carry out the attack, how he got hold of the material to build weapons and explosives, whether he had supporters or whether anyone else encouraged him or knew about his plan, he said. Prosecutors will have to sift through his communications and his activities on the darknet, a part of the internet hidden from public view.

Officials didn’t give details of the victims, who were killed outside the synagogue and in a nearby kebab shop.

The head of Germany’s Jewish community, Josef Schuster, called the absence of police guards outside the synagogue on Yom Kippur “scandalous” as members of the congregation described waiting behind locked doors for the police to arrive, which took more than 10 minutes.

The head of the city’s Jewish community, Max Privorozki, was among those inside who watched the man trying to break in on monitors linked to a surveillance camera.

“We saw everything, also how he shot and how he killed someone,” he said, standing outside the damaged door. “I thought this door wouldn’t hold.”

Privorozki said it took a little while for worshippers to grasp what was going on.

“That was a shock for us. It was Yom Kippur, all phones were switched off. We had to understand what was going on first — then switch on my phone and then call the police,” he said.

Loading...