{"id":140037,"date":"2026-08-04T06:51:52","date_gmt":"2026-08-04T06:51:52","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/dk\/140037\/"},"modified":"2026-08-04T06:51:52","modified_gmt":"2026-08-04T06:51:52","slug":"police-kill-suspect-in-deadly-berlin-pride-assault-politico","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/dk\/140037\/","title":{"rendered":"Police kill suspect in deadly Berlin Pride assault \u2013 POLITICO"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Ballout had rammed a van into a crowd on a path at the Tiergarten near the main venue of a weekend Pride event and then attacked people with a bladed weapon \u201cbelieved to be a machete,\u201d injuring many seriously, Dobrindt told journalists, confirming that <a href=\"https:\/\/www.reuters.com\/world\/major-vehicle-ramming-incidents-germany-since-2016-2026-07-26\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener nofollow\">one woman was killed<\/a> and 29 people were hurt.<\/p>\n<p>He added that Ballout \u201chad previously come to the attention of authorities because of numerous criminal offenses, his radicalization, and his association with the Islamist scene.\u201d Dobrindt said the suspect\u2019s radicalization had previously resulted in a conviction.<\/p>\n<p>According to a <a href=\"https:\/\/www.welt.de\/politik\/deutschland\/plus6a65ac6bfe2765826e0fd8b0\/angriff-auf-csd-tatverdaechtiger-abdul-b-galt-als-gefaehrder-und-sollte-morgen-zu-beratungstermin-erscheinen.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener nofollow\">report by WELT<\/a> (like POLITICO, part of the Axel Springer group), the suspect had been classified as a security threat and sentenced under the German Criminal Code for preparing a serious act of violence endangering the state. WELT also reported that a court had ordered Ballout to attend counseling as part of a de-radicalization program that aimed to prevent extremism.<\/p>\n<p>Dobrindt said it could not be ruled out that \u201csuch horrific terrorist attacks could inspire copycats,\u201d although he said the risk was low. He advised Germany\u2019s federal states to <a href=\"https:\/\/www.washingtonpost.com\/world\/2026\/07\/26\/berlin-pride-attack-investigated-terrorism-with-suspect-large\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener nofollow\">strengthen security measures<\/a> to avoid similar events.<\/p>\n<p>German Chancellor Friedrich Merz <a href=\"https:\/\/x.com\/bundeskanzler\/status\/2081253357943927164\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener nofollow\">condemned the attack<\/a>, and several European heads of state expressed their condolences.<\/p>\n<p>Merz and several members of his Cabinet attended a memorial on Sunday. Ahead of the service Merz told journalists: \u201cThese attacks have only one purpose. They seek to divide our society. They seek to take away what is most precious to us: our openness and our freedom.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>He added: \u201cWe will not allow this poison of terrorism, this poison directed against our freedom, to spread farther through our society.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>This story has been updated.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Ballout had rammed a van into a crowd on a path at the Tiergarten near the main venue&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":140038,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[99],"tags":[3400,112,235,190,3421,4235,4322,2272],"class_list":["post-140037","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-berlin","tag-alexander-dobrindt","tag-berlin","tag-friedrich-merz","tag-germany","tag-islam","tag-law-enforcement","tag-lgbtq","tag-terrorism"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@dk\/117035922027707538","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/dk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/140037","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/dk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/dk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/dk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/dk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=140037"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/dk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/140037\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/dk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/140038"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/dk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=140037"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/dk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=140037"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/dk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=140037"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}