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secondMayor Wolfram Leibe (SPD) struggled to hold back tears Tuesday afternoon at the first press conference after an alleged uproar in Trier. “I walked downtown and it was horrible,” he said. “There is a sneaker there. That girl is dead. ” Rescue workers from across the region are on duty. “Everyone is busy taking the wounded and seriously injured to hospitals.” Leibe had previously spoken of a “riot.” Police confirmed four dead in the night, who were between nine months and 72 years old.
Karl-Peter Jochem, a spokesman for Trier Police Headquarters, explained at the lunchtime press conference what investigators had known so far about the incident: A man was driving a van through a pedestrian area and apparently hitting to “random” people. “There are several deaths and several serious and serious injuries.” Police stopped the car after the crime and arrested a 51-year-old German. The man comes from the Trier-Saarburg district, his motive is unclear. “We don’t know why he did that.” He fought the arrest. The car was insured.
After the arrest there is no longer any danger to the population, police said. However, the city center remains largely closed for the time being to secure the tracks. This can take several hours. Obtaining evidence is important, said Mayor Leibe. “This person will be judged at some point; the more effort we make now, the more fair it will be later.”
Firefighters received the first emergency calls shortly before 2 pm According to SWR, an eyewitness reported that a dark gray Range Rover had sped across the bread road, people had flown through the air. The driver is also said to have driven down the popular Simeonstrasse shopping street near Porta Nigra, a total of around a kilometer through the city center. Rhineland-Palatinate Interior Minister Roger Lewentz (SPD) said the suspect was arrested “four minutes after the initial notification”.
The off-road vehicle is severely damaged at the front.
A video available to the FAZ shows how the police officers pushed the alleged driver to the ground. The man is wearing sneakers, gray pants and a dark jacket and is lying on the sidewalk with his left leg stretched out. The gray off-road vehicle is only a few meters away from him, it has stopped on a bike path in Christophstrasse, just a few hundred meters from Porta Nigra, the symbol of Trier. All doors and the tailgate of the car are open, two plainclothes police vehicles, only recognizable as such by the blue lights, have cut the car. The off-road vehicle is severely damaged at the front. The hood is dented, the windshield is broken. In the front right, a part of the body is dented or broken. The car is registered in Trier.
Bernd Walter W. from Trier is accused on social media of being the driver of the SUV. In a voice message circulating on WhatsApp, W. describes himself as psychologically “not quite up to par.” Other users posted hateful messages on a Facebook profile created with the same name.
There is some evidence that W. could have been the driver: in an investigation that someone sent to the Trier prosecutor’s office under the name W through the portal “Ask the State”, a date of birth is given in September 1969. The person would be 51 years old today, which coincides with the information provided by the police. When asked, investigators declined to confirm that W. was the driver of the car.
Authorities have no evidence of a political background in the Trier incident. The German press agency found out about this from security circles, and the police also confirmed it at night. Therefore, the driver of the car is not classified as a danger. Security authorities refer to individuals as threats if they trust the most politically motivated acts of violence, including terrorist attacks.
The Prime Minister of Rhineland-Palatinate, Malu Dreyer (SPD), expressed her deepest condolences to the families of the victims. In the incident, a baby was “ripped from life”. Government spokesman Steffen Seibert wrote on Twitter: “What happened in Trier is shocking. The thought is with the families of the victims, with the many injured and with all those who are currently on duty to care for those affected.
