The German police officer that was critically wounded after being stabbed in the neck during a knife attack in Mannheim last Friday has died.
BREAK DOWN
Date: May 31, 2024
Location: Mannheim Marktplatz, Germany
Fatalities: 1 (Police officer)
Wounded: 6, including suspect
Suspect: Sulaiman Ataee, 25
Suspect Status: In custody
Motive: Unconfirmed, suspected Islamism
EVENTS
At approximately 1145 local time, Ataee began stabbing members of the right-wing, anti-Islam Pax Europa movement at an information booth that was set up by the group in the market square of Mannheim.
Footage of the attack shows Ataee on the ground stabbing a victim as several others rush over to intervene, who are then also stabbed. He then takes another victim to the ground, repeatedly stabbing them and others.
Ataee then gets up and runs over to a police officer, who appears to have wrongfully tackled one of the victims, and begins stabbing him repeatedly in the neck.
Ataee is then shot and subdued by other officers.
The incident lasted roughly 25 seconds.
THE SUSPECT
German media identified the suspect as 25 year old Sulaiman Ataee.
According to the national German media outlet Tagesschau, Ataee was originally from Herat, Afghanistan, and immigrated to Germany in 2013, where he had been living in nearby Heppenheim since.
Ataee is said to have a valid residency permit and was not previously known to authorities for extremist ties.
THE VICTIMS
The police officer that was stabbed in the neck, identified by German media as Rouven L, has succumb to his wounds.
In a statement by Mannheim Police, Rouven “was operated on immediately after the crime and placed in an artificial coma, but succumbed in the late afternoon hours of the 2 June.”
Wir trauern um unseren Kollegen – um andere zu schützen hat er sein Leben gegeben!
Am Freitag wurde unser Kollege vom PP Mannheim durch einen Messerangriff schwer verletzt und ist heute seinen Verletzungen erlegen.
PM des LKA: https://t.co/Bf1VqoSxro#einervonuns#mannheim pic.twitter.com/0vLzqtvZ39
— Polizei Mannheim (@PolizeiMannheim) June 2, 2024
The other victims were members of Pax Europa (BPE), a right-wing, counter-Islam group based in Germany.
According to their website, the group “informs the public about the human rights violations caused by political Islam and about the existential threats to free democratic societies in Germany and Europe that arise from the increasing spread and influence of political Islam.”
One of the victims has been identified as Michael Stürzenberger, a prominent German anti-Islam activist who regularly speaks at BPE events.
THE MOTIVE
German authorities have yet to confirm an exact motive as the investigation is still ongoing, although it has been spectated by some to be Islamist-motivated due to the nature of BPE.
Following the attack, German Interior Minister Nancy Faeser stated that “If the investigation reveals an Islamist motive, then that would be further confirmation of the great danger posed by Islamist acts of violence that we have warned about.”