21-year-old Abdul Ballout, the suspect in the deadly Berlin Pride attack on Saturday, was shot and killed by law enforcement, according to German media. Berlin’s police department said that the suspect died during a police operation at a garden complex.
The announcement followed a massive manhunt in Germany after a man plowed a van into a crowd near a Pride festival in Berlin before the suspect attacked people with a blade, leaving one person dead and more than two dozen injured.
The suspect was identified as Ballout, a German citizen of Lebanese descent. The attack occurred at one of Europe’s largest LGBT events, which drew hundreds of thousands of attendees. The vehicle believed to have been used in the attack was later found crashed into a tree.
The parade route passed through the park where the vehicle had crashed, and the events were called to an end around 10:15 pm, shortly after the attack. According to a report by the BBC, the attack left one woman dead and at least 29 injured.
Reuters reported that Ballout had previously been known to German authorities after committing multiple crimes. He was reportedly released from juvenile detention just two months ago, was known to domestic intelligence, and had been classified as potentially dangerous. He had previously been sentenced to one year and 10 months in prison, which was later commuted to parole.
Berlin Mayor Kai Wegner said security at the Pride festival itself had been extensive, saying the site "was not attacked because the perpetrator wasn't able to make it there, because that had been secured by police.” He noted that the attack occurred roughly 400 meters from the festival grounds, where people were traveling to and from the event.
Wegner said the attack "is an alleged Islamist attack on our way of living together, on our liberal democracy, on our openness, on our freedom.”
German Interior Minister Alexander Dobrindt said authorities believe the attack was highly likely to be an act of Islamist terrorism and announced that Germany would raise its national threat level.
"Everything we see here indicates that we are dealing with an Islamist terrorist attack," Dobrindt told reporters. He also warned that authorities “cannot rule out the possibility of copycat attacks.”
In a post on X, German Chancellor Friedrich Merz condemned the attack as “a heinous act.”
“What a heinous act in Berlin. 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,” he wrote on X. “This is an attack on our society.”
