Berlin Pride attack: Suspect shot dead as scrutiny turns to his release

The man suspected of driving a van into a crowd at Berlin’s Christopher Street Day was shot dead by police within 24 hours of the attack, as questions mount over why a known extremist with a terror conviction had been free to act.

The attack came late Saturday, around 10 p.m., near Potsdamer Platz in the Tiergarten, as hundreds of thousands marked the city’s annual Pride event. A vehicle plowed into marchers, striking and running over several people before crashing into a tree. One woman was killed at the scene and 29 people were injured, several seriously. Organizers broke off the celebrations, and the Tiergarten filled with police through the night.

Interior Minister Alexander Dobrindt named the suspect as Abdul Ballout, 21, and said the evidence pointed to an Islamist terror attack. Ballout was known to authorities for a string of prior offenses and for being radicalized. He had been convicted of preparing a serious act of subversive violence after a failed attempt to join the Islamic State, drawing a suspended sentence, and was released from juvenile detention in May. He had been placed in a deradicalization program whose staff judged his cooperation fake and had planned to alert authorities.

On the evening of July 26, Ballout was shot and killed by a police special unit during an attempted arrest in the Spandau district. Officers said he charged at them with a knife and died despite efforts to revive him.

Governing Mayor Kai Wegner condemned the attack as a strike against Berlin’s open society and said he was relieved the suspect had been caught within a day. Chancellor Friedrich Merz called it an abhorrent act and pledged a full investigation. Flags at the Reichstag were lowered to half-mast, and mourners left tributes near the Brandenburg Gate. That a man with Ballout’s record had been released without close surveillance quickly became the central controversy of the aftermath, drawing criticism from politicians, security experts and a police union.