Berlin’s public prosecutor has said the man who crashed into a school group on Wednesday morning, killing a teacher and injuring dozens more, was in treatment for paranoid schizophrenia and has been transferred to a psychiatric facility.
The 29-year-old German-Armenian resident of Berlin, identified only as Gor H, could have faced one murder charge and 31 cases of attempted murder for what a prosecutor spokesman said was “probably a deliberate act”. On Thursday, however, the man’s doctor confirmed to prosecutors that he was in treatment and is likely to be found not legally responsible.
“There are no clues pointing to a terrorist motivation behind this deed, we can also rule out that it was an accident,” said Sebastian Büchner, spokesman for Berlin’s public prosecutor.
One eyewitnesses spoke of how the man “drove forward into the crowd, then shifted to reverse and drove back into them”.
“I saw how he drove over the teacher, reverse and rolled over her body once more,” said one witness to the tabloid Bild. “I cannot forget the images of the young people lying on the ground.”
Police said the driver received German citizenship in 2015 and is known to them for various convictions: assault, defamation, theft and breach of the peace.
Police said that the man was brought to a holding cell at 10pm on Wednesday evening and that a transfer to a psychiatric facility is likely.
The man’s sister told Bild that her brother suffers from “serious problems”.
At 10.28am on Wednesday, driving his sister’s silver Renault Clio, the man drove into a crowd in the western city centre, crashed into a perfume shop and was detained by passersby.
Berlin’s governing mayor Franziska Giffey said the attack had “ripped open wounds” left by the 2016 Christmas market attack, a short distance away from Wednesday’s crash site, that left 12 dead.
Chancellor Olaf Scholz described the attack as a “cruel rampage” that had left him “deeply saddened”.
Seven young people from a visiting school group are still being treated for serious injuries, some life-threatening, while seven other classmates have light injuries.
In addition 17 other passersby in Berlin are being treated medically while, in total, 50 people are receiving psychological assistance.
