A woman in Stuttgart, Reutlingen, Germany has been pronounced dead after being attacked by a machete-yielding man.
According to RT, the man just randomly attacked passersby out of nowhere. This has led to two more civilians being injured. There are no definitive motives yet.
Since the attacks took place at the Listplaz square, the authorities were able to respond quicker.
There were also multiple eye witnesses who posted the capture on social media. The captured man was seen being detained by the police.
After the initial investigation, the police has confirmed that the man used a machete to conduct the attacks. He was also acting alone and there is currently no evidence that shows he had accomplices.
GERMANY: Man with machete kills a woman, injures 2 other people in Reutlingen, Germany. attacker arrested. PHOTOS: pic.twitter.com/ld4kuAZfeR
— KolHaolam (@KolHaolam) July 24, 2016
Germany Attacks on Rampage
This is not the first civilian attack that happened in Germany this quarter. According to Independent , there was a shooting in Munich last week. According to police reports, the suspect was “obsessed with mass shootings.”
Though the attack was initially suspected to be ISIS-related, it was then removed as a possibility since the case is a “classic shooting rampage.”
The mass shooting resulted in nine people killed and 26 injured. The event happened at another public mall in Munich.
The authorities identified the man as David S., an 18-year-old boy who never had a criminal record. Though the motive was unclear, the police were assuming the suspect was trying to commemorate the 5 th anniversary of the mass shooting that happened in Norway.
Thomas de Maiziere, top security official Interior Minister, said that the young shooter had researched about the 2009 school shooting in Germany before this happened.
“There was material found in the apartment of the suspect that showed a particular interest in shooting sprees, (but) there is so far no indication of any connection to international terrorism,” de Maiziere said.
#BREAKING : One dead and 2 injured after a man attacked people with a machete in #Reutlingen Germany pic.twitter.com/JTbRNcyzWX
— Amichai Stein (@AmichaiStein1) July 24, 2016
The authorities also found out that the shooter was just a student and he has been diagnosed with depression. Even case prosecutor Steinkraus Koch confirmed this detail saying the boy has a book entitled, “Why Kids Kill: Inside the Minds of School Shooters.”
Interestingly, the shooting was planned. The shooter hacked a Facebook account to tell the locals that there will be a giveaway at the mall that day. He was probably trying to beat the 2009 record of 77 casualties.
The shooter used a young woman’s account and told people to arrive at around 4 p.m. saying, “I’ll give you something if you want, but not too expensive.”
The Facebook account hacking was also reported to the authorities, but the Olympic shopping mall has been closed after the incident. They did not indicate the timeline on when it is going to open back again.
On a different incident last July 18, a different attack happened. The Independent reported that it was conducted by an Afghan teenager who shouted “ Allahhu Akbar ” during the attack.
This attack happened in a train. There were 3 injured and 14 people being treated for shock.
According to the police, this attack was not related to ISIS, but the attacker was frustrated with the refugee case that is happening in Germany right now.
“This is a tragedy, but it is really a tragedy beyond the people who are directly affected, because this is a very contentious issue in Germany, the way we are dealing with refugees,” said political analyst at Kiel University Marcel Dirsus.
There were eyewitnesses during the event and they described it as a tragic “battlefield” because of the large amounts of blood scattered in the scene.
