Berlin pride attack suspect Abdul Ballout’s troubling past revealed
Police have identified Abdul Ballout as the main suspect believed to have perpetrated the deadly attack on a German pride festival.
Berlin is in mourning after a van crashed into a crowd at its annual Christopher Street Day Pride parade, with one person dead and dozens of others injured.
At around 10pm, a white van drove into the crowd in the Berlin Tiergarten. The van was later found abandoned at the scene with heavy damage.
The event was cancelled halfway through a live band’s performance.
The suspect has been identified as Abdul Ballout, 21, who was born in Germany.
German authorities said the man had connections to Islamic extremism, and had attracted attention through several criminal offences. He was released from juvenile detention just two months before the attack.
In February 2022, Ballout was convicted by juvenile court for assault and robbery. In September 2019, he was found guilty of assaulting someone at a high school in Berlin.
The suspect was fatally shot at a garden complex the following evening. Police said he rushed towards emergency forces with a stabbing weapon, after which police forearms were used.
Police are still working to determine whether the perpetrator acted alone.
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