Police shoot dead suspect in attack near Berlin LGBT Pride

Berlin police shot and killed 21-year-old German citizen Abdul Ballout on the evening of July 26 while attempting to arrest him at an allotment garden in the western district of Spandau. Ballout was being sought as the main suspect in the previous night’s attack near the Christopher Street Day (CSD) LGBT Pride festival site, which killed one woman and injured 29 people.

According to an updated Tagesschau report , police found Ballout at around 6 p.m. Police say he ran toward officers with a sharp object, prompting members of Berlin’s special operations unit to open fire. Ballout died at the scene despite attempts to resuscitate him.

The attack took place at around 10 p.m. on July 25 in Tiergarten park, near Potsdamer Platz and outside the secured CSD festival grounds. Investigators allege that a white van drove into people and then hit a tree before the driver fled. Authorities are also examining reports of a subsequent attack with a bladed weapon. Germany’s Federal Public Prosecutor has taken over the case and is investigating whether others were involved. Interior Minister Alexander Dobrindt called the incident an Islamist terrorist attack; a direct link to CSD has not yet been conclusively established, although authorities consider it likely.

Ballout was born and raised in Berlin, held German citizenship and had Lebanese roots. According to the Berlin Public Prosecutor General’s Office , he was sentenced under juvenile law on May 12 to one year and 10 months in prison for preparing a serious act of violence endangering the state and two violations of an enforceable ban under the Associations Act. The judgment was not final: prosecutors appealed, while the court deferred for six months a decision on whether to suspend the sentence and lifted the arrest warrant. The court found that Ballout had tried to join Islamic State and had posted banned propaganda, but also considered his largely cooperative testimony and stated distancing from the group.