Suspect in psychiatric hospital
AfD local council candidate attacked with knife in Mannheim
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According to the district association, an AfD candidate for the local elections caught three people tearing down posters on Tuesday evening. According to the information, he confronts a person and is attacked with a knife. The politician is injured and has to go to the hospital. The police arrest one person and two escape.
In Mannheim, an AfD candidate for the local elections was injured with a knife. Security circles confirm this. The suspect was therefore arrested. The incident occurred late Tuesday evening at 10:45 p.m. The Mannheim police confirmed in the morning that there was a police operation. According to the AfD, the person attacked was Heinrich Koch, who is running for the Mannheim local council election on Sunday. He holds third place on the list.
According to investigators, the 25-year-old suspect was taken to a psychiatric hospital. During the arrest there were clear indications of mental illness, the police and public prosecutor's office said. “According to the current status of the investigation, there is no concrete evidence that the suspect in the attack recognized that the injured party was an AfD politician.”
The accused is said to have damaged and stolen several election posters on Tuesday evening. According to the report, witnesses alerted the police. The AfD politician also noticed what was happening, pursued the suspect and caught him, the police said. The 25-year-old is said to have injured the pursuer with a cutter knife. The victim suffered non-life-threatening injuries and was taken to hospital.
The suspected perpetrator fled after the incident, investigators said. Police were able to arrest him. He didn't offer any resistance.
According to the AfD district association, the incident occurred near the market square in the Rheinau district of Mannheim. The AfD candidate for the local council had caught several poster rippers in the act. When he confronted one of the people, he was attacked and injured with a knife, it was said. According to the AfD, a total of three people were involved and two were able to escape. A police patrol caught the suspect in a very short time because they were nearby and a citizen dialed 110.
Video is supposed to show the incident
On a video that was passed on to the dpa by the AfD and which was apparently filmed by the injured AfD candidate himself, the person filming can be seen running after a younger man across the market square and shouting “Stop! Stand still!”. The younger man is carrying several AfD election posters under his arm and presumably has a box cutter in his hand. “Lie down immediately!” shouts the end of the film. Then a scuffle ensues. You can see the man swinging the knife, the rest of the images are blurred.
The AfD politician is still in the hospital, but only suffered cuts, the AfD regional association said. According to the local council group, he was hit in the ear and stomach. The injured candidate will probably leave the clinic at midday. The party speaks of an attack by left-wing extremists – the information has not yet been officially confirmed. “We are shocked and dismayed,” said AfD state chairman Markus Frohnmaier.
Mannheim's mayor Christian Specht has strongly condemned the attack on an AfD candidate for the local council election. “This cowardly act is abhorrent and cannot be justified in any way,” said the CDU politician. “Anyone who attacks election candidates calls into question our free, equal, general, direct and secret elections – and thus the basis of our democracy.” The dastardly incident is one of a series of attacks on campaign workers and politicians that can currently be observed throughout Germany. “The hatred and willingness to violence that are currently spreading in our society are unbearable.”
In recent weeks, numerous attacks on politicians have caused a stir. Among other things, the SPD election campaigner Matthias Ecke was beaten until he was hospitalized in Dresden.
Remembering fatal knife attack
On Friday, a 25-year-old with Afghan citizenship pulled out a knife on the market square in downtown Mannheim at an event organized by the anti-Islam movement Pax Europa (BPE). He injured six men, including the police officer. The 29-year-old police officer died from his injuries on Sunday afternoon. The attacker stabbed the officer several times in the head area.
The attacker was stopped by another police officer's shot. After the death of the young police officer in the knife attack, there is also great sympathy in federal politics.
The Federal Prosecutor General has taken over the investigation. So far, the perpetrator has not been able to be questioned for health reasons, the public prosecutor said on Monday. In addition to statements about the motive for the crime from the perpetrator himself, the investigators hope to gain further information by evaluating the data carriers found during the search of his apartment in Heppenheim, Hesse.