Amok run from Graz
During the rampage in Graz on June 20, 2015, a 26-year-old drove through the center of Graz in an SUV at high speed . In particular, by driving on sidewalks and pedestrian zones, he killed three people and injured 36 passers-by and pub users .
Sequence of events
The rampage in downtown Graz led from 12:15 p.m. from Griesplatz to the main square and finally to Schmiedgasse, where the driver with his green SUV of the Daewoo Rexton type deliberately drove into and over pedestrians and cyclists. Three people were fatally injured, including a four-year-old child. Another 36 people were injured, some seriously, including a man who died eight months later in the rehab clinic . During his rampage, the driver jumped out of the car in front of a supermarket in Grazbachgasse, attacked two people with a knife and injured them, some seriously. In Schmiedgasse at the level of the police station , he finally ended the journey and was arrested by the police. In addition to the police, internationally in cooperation with Interpol , the Federal Office for the Protection of the Constitution and the Fight against Terrorism also investigated the case in order to exclude religious backgrounds for the crime.
The distance
The rampage led from Griesplatz via Zweiglgasse, Augartenbrücke, Grazbachgasse, Dietrichsteinplatz, Schlögelgasse, Luthergasse, Girardigasse, Hamerlinggasse, Hans-Sachs-Gasse and Herrengasse to the main square to Murgasse and finally to Schmiedgasse. The total distance of about two and a half kilometers ran from Griesplatz to Girardigasse one and a half kilometers through two-lane one-way streets, only Girardigasse is predominantly a single-lane one-way street. The Hamerlinggasse is usually very little traffic, as the pedestrian zone begins with the Hans-Sachs-Gasse . Distance kilometers are 1.7 here. In the center of the Herrengasse pedestrian zone, a two-lane tramway at the same level runs in the middle, flanked in parts by flagpoles or pub gardens ; there are low sidewalk stops at the main square. The first section alone in Schmiedgasse along the town hall is not a pedestrian zone. The gunman drove on at least three sidewalks in Zweiglgasse and Grazbachgasse . A retractable bollard , which many years ago was supposed to lock cars out of the pedestrian zone at the northern end of Hamerlinggasse, was shut down after a malfunction and complaints and was later removed.
The highest speed - estimated by witnesses at up to around 100 km / h - is said to have reached the gunman on the straight in Herrengasse, running from Hans-Sachs-Gasse to the main square.
A surveillance video that has been published shows that the car about ten meters in front of the pub garden of Cafe Gino-Muhr, Hauptplatz 17, at the northern end of Herrengasse, did not drive on the central route of Herrengasse, which was kept free for trams and motor vehicle traffic, but in only two to Finally, one meter from the eastern facade of the house, entered the approximately three meter wide pedestrian path between the pub garden and the house wall. The three pictures show around eight people running away to the side, as well as a woman who drives a pram buggy to the wall of the house and pushes against it as the car passes northwards a meter and a half away.
Perpetrator
The perpetrator fled to Austria with his parents before the Bosnian War at the age of four and is now an Austrian citizen. The family originally comes from Bihać . He worked as a driver and lived with his wife and two children in Kalsdorf near Graz . On May 28, he was expelled from their apartment for two weeks for domestic violence , and his wife was placed in a women's shelter by the police . Police confirmed one for him barring the home of his family. The marriage ended in divorce in February 2016.
After his arrest, the gunman was taken into custody and taken to the Graz-Jakomini prison . The perpetrator showed very aggressive and uncooperative behavior there, so that he had to be housed in a secure cell. The management of Graz-Jakomini applied for the U-prisoner to be transferred to the Vienna-Josefstadt prison . The reasons given were, on the one hand, the great emotionality in the Graz correctional facility among staff and inmates, and on the other hand, the suicidal tendencies of the gunman. Alen R. was finally transferred to the special prison in Göllersdorf . The perpetrator was in custody until June 2016.
Trial and Police File
After the investigation, the main hearing at the regional court began on September 20, 2016, exactly 15 months after the crime, before a jury . The prosecutor and the judge appointed different experts who came to different conclusions. As a result, the judgment of a senior expert was necessary, who classified the perpetrator as not sane.
Statements by the perpetrator and witness statements
At the trial, Alen R. claimed to have acted out of fear. He said he was persecuted and felt threatened by his father-in-law, was oppressed by his wife (who fled to the women's refuge), she also tried to poison him and the trigger for his rampage was gunfire he believed she heard. He had acted psychotically in a panic , couldn't remember anything and just wanted to go to the nearest police station. In addition, he stated on the first day of the trial that he was a victim himself, and on the fourth day of the trial that he wanted to underline this indirectly with his white clothes in court. He also lost control of his car and confused the accelerator with the brake pedal. Alen R. explained that he had got out of the car for a moment and stabbed a couple he had run into with a small knife (the husband of the newly married couple was the first to die) by saying that he felt threatened by them because they felt that way near his car window.
However, this representation contradicted numerous witnesses who testified that Alen R. targeted people and cleverly avoided obstacles (hydrant, lanterns, concrete benches, flagpoles, advertising pillars, etc.). A couple of witnesses even said they casually watched him drive his car with one arm leaning out of the open window. He was also filmed and seen stopping at a red traffic light when turning into Grazbachgasse during the rampage and properly operating the indicator. In Stubenberggasse, Alen R. was seen turning around in his off-road vehicle because a construction site was blocking the road there. He had to reverse several times in the narrow alley. Here, too, his driving style was described by the witnesses as purposeful and skillful.
Numerous witnesses of the rampage in the Herrengasse described that Alen R. had deliberately not chosen the lane or the track bed of the tram, but instead steered his car purposefully to the relatively narrow, but highly frequented pedestrian area along the shops and thereby also drove through a couple of well-attended pub gardens. There he also caused most of the injuries (some of them seriously) as well as two of the three fatalities (a 4-year-old boy and a 53-year-old woman from Graz who was only able to be identified weeks after the journey). In addition, the witnesses unanimously stated that Alen R. had accelerated strongly there with his SUV, and estimated the speed to be 50-80 km / h. One witness on the 4th day of the trial and one on the 5th day of the trial each declared that Alen R. even laughed when he drove into the crowd while driving down Herrengasse. Another witness on the journey in Zweiglgasse had already made a similar observation on the second day of the trial.
Different diagnoses and reports
The process had already attracted attention in advance, as there were different diagnoses of Alen R.'s health. The expert appointed by the public prosecutor's office, Dr. Peter Hofmann diagnosed Alen R. with schizophrenia and declared him at the time of the crime as not sane and incapable of litigation. The victim lawyers then commissioned the expert Dr. Manfred Walzl, who diagnosed Alen R. with a personality disorder with psychotic attacks and considered him to be both sane and capable of litigation. As a result, Dr. Jürgen Müller was commissioned, who followed the diagnosis of the first expert Hofmann in his report. Due to the divergent reports, however, the process still came. Since the expert opinion commissioned by the public prosecutor's office had found Alen R. to be inconsistent, the public prosecutors referred to him in the application not as a "defendant" but as a "victim".
The experts defended their diagnosis in court. The diagnosis of schizophrenia was confirmed by statements from the director and doctors of the Göllersdorf prison, but these had often only looked after Alen R. for a short time under the influence of medication and also referred to the descriptions of the nurses. According to the schizophrenia reports, Alen R. ran over people because he saw them as persecutors. His arrest at the Schmiedgasse police station without resistance was given as evidence of the diagnosis. There the gunman believed he was safe from his pursuers and therefore ended his journey. The perpetrator's laughter observed by witnesses while driving was also declared by expert Hofmann as not contradicting his diagnosis, since inadequate behavior and facial expressions can occur in schizophrenia. The fact that Alen R. got out of his car and stabbed his first victim, despite alleged fear of persecution, could only be described as atypical: “That doesn't fit into this chain”. When asked by the jury whether Alen R. could also play the symptoms described by the reviewers, both Dr. Hofmann, as well as Dr. Müller to be “absolutely sure” that this is not the case. Shortly afterwards, however, they weakened their statements. So it is theoretically possible, but one has to be very knowledgeable in the field of psychiatry and based on their many years of experience they consider it unlikely. When the judge asked why Alen R. had been diagnosed as incapable of negotiating, but he was apparently able to attend all trial days without incident, it was explained that he had been given strong sedatives and the neuroleptic Risperdal in high doses.
Reviewer Dr. Walzl, in turn, stuck to his diagnosis of a personality disorder. Alen R. was said to have been psychotic but sane at the time of the offense. The trigger was his wife's flight to the women's shelter. For this he blamed society and wanted to take revenge on it. His diagnosis was confirmed in court by the testimony of psychiatrist Dr. Lapornik, who was the first psychiatrist to question Alen R. after the day of the crime and, unlike the reviewers, was still able to interview without the influence of medication. Dr. Lapornik diagnosed a personality disorder whose psychotic phase had already subsided and only prescribed painkillers to Alen R., because he complained about back pain. In general, Alen R. is very quick-tempered and self-centered with pronounced demands, while he was indifferent to the suffering of others. As evidence of this, Dr. Lapornik described several scenes. A visit to the mother had to be broken off because Alen R. was “put into a state of excitement” after being asked to speak German. When a judicial officer asked Alen R. to put out his cigarette because the interrogation was supposed to go on, he "literally exploded" and shouted: "I was treated like a gypsy, Jews can be treated like that". A blood sample could only be carried out under duress, Alen R. insulted the police officers as “fascist police” and declared “you can take a sperm sample at the same time”. The possibility that Alen R. was only faking certain symptoms was described by both Lapornik and Walzl as "possible" or "possible". Alen R.'s ex-wife also alleged that he was staging a play.
The clinical psychologist Anita Raiger, who testified on the last day of the trial, also diagnosed Alen R. as sane with a "psychopathic disorder" . So he shows a "pronounced willingness to lie" and have a "congruent profile" with people running amok. Whereby Raiger saw no psychosis in Alen R. Only 20% of those who ran amok have psychoses, for them R. belongs to the other 80%. Raiger cited Monika Lüppert's book "Model of hegemonic masculinity " as the motive for the rampage, and she saw all of these ascribed to R. So the latter saw himself as a “producer, breadwinner and protector” and felt that being abandoned by his wife was a humiliation and an offense. These feelings then turned into hatred and anger and led R. to want revenge on society.
judgment
On September 29, 2016, contrary to the majority opinion of the experts, the jury unanimously found the perpetrator to be sane at the time of the offense and sentenced to life imprisonment for three murders and 108 attempted murders. The defense lawyer appealed for annulment . The Supreme Court dismissed this nullity appeal in April 2017 and assigned the decision on the appeal to the Higher Regional Court of Vienna, which confirmed the life sentence in June 2017.
Speculation about the background
According to the weekly newspaper Falter , there are worrying gaps in the police investigation. A full house search was only carried out nine days after the rampage; cell phone SIM cards and bank accounts were only poorly checked. The police records contain statements that suggest a possible paranoia, but evidence of a possible religious mania was not investigated. The perpetrator's wife, now divorced, said she had been forced to wear a burqa and her husband at the time visited a mosque in Graz six times a week. R. denies this.
At the trial, Alen R. claimed to be a Christian. When the assistant judge asked whether he had been baptized, he said no. When the police searched his apartment, the only book found was the Koran . R. states that it belongs to his wife. Alen R. had apparently erased the hard drive of his PC with special software before he went amok so that it could no longer be reconstructed. Alen R. was friends with the IS preacher Fikret B., who was convicted in another trial . When she testified, the ex-wife described a fight between the two of them with Romanian customers of their vehicle dealership. Even when he was first questioned on the day of the incident, he had told the police: “My God will punish you” and declared that he was a Muslim. However, he retracted this claim a day later. The reviewer Dr. On the seventh day of the trial, Walzl described that Alen R. had carried a cross and read it in the Koran, as well as a recorded statement from him about his belief: "Jesus Christ or Allah, it will be one of them."
Reactions
The Styrian governor Hermann Schützenhöfer condemned what happened as a “horrific act for which there was neither an explanation nor an apology.” Graz mayor Siegfried Nagl , who was an eyewitness to the rampage, described the event as “the saddest day for Graz”.
The Bishop of the Diocese of Graz-Seckau Wilhelm Krautwaschl said: “We cannot find any words for what happened today in the city center of Graz. Let us stand together even in these difficult hours. Our thoughts and prayers go out to those who are affected by this attack and to those who are helping on site. ”To commemorate this, a commemorative mass was celebrated in the Graz parish church , attended by top representatives of the Styrian state government and the city government as well as clergy Representatives of the Roman Catholic Church and Orthodox Churches attended. The mass was read by the parish priest Christian Leibnitz. Other events were canceled, such as a preparatory game by SK Sturm Graz , the multicultural ball and the farewell gala for the outgoing drama director of the Graz Schauspielhaus , Anna Badora .
Memorial march on Sunday, June 28, 2015
In the light of the events, the City of Graz and the State of Styria organized a memorial march on Sunday, June 28, 2015, which started at 4:45 p.m. at Griesplatz, via Zweigl-, Grazbach- and later Herrengasse, partly along the route of the rampage, but shortened via Wielandgasse, Joanneumring over wider streets. Addresses were given on the main square by representatives of the religious communities, by Mayor Siegfried Nagl, Governor Hermann Schützenhöfer, Federal Chancellor Werner Faymann and Federal President Heinz Fischer . The march was led by political leaders, around 7,000 people went with them. Around 12,000 people gathered on the main square and in front of one of several video screens in Herrengasse for musical performances and speeches.
Temporal, spatial and factual parallels
Psychologist Raiger mentioned on the last day of the trial, September 29, 2016: "There is no more public place than the city center on Saturday lunchtime". The Saturday of the action, June 20th, was the weekend on which Formula 1 drove its Grand Prix in Spielberg, Styria . "R. the journey starts two hours before qualifying, ”said Raiger. "How random is that?"
The Graz Prix event (September 19-21, 2015) was also in progress on the southern half of the main square on this day , a cooperation between Citymanagement Graz, which brings the Grand Prix to the city via exhibition and stage events . At least one witness in the area of the main square first assigned the heard engine noise of the rampage to this event, therefore classified it as not threatening and only later saw that a person was driving towards people by car.
Siegfried Nagl (ÖVP), mayor of the city of Graz at the time, was affected as someone threatened from behind - driving a Vespa scooter in Zweiglgasse.
On the day the verdict against R. was pronounced in Vienna-Favoriten, Quellenstrasse, a 21-year-old with a Turkish migration background drove his car “a few laps” with loud music and approached people. In this - according to reports - amok run no one was harmed, a passerby was able to save himself with a dive.
In Graz, Mariengasse 24, on Whitsunday, May 16, 2016, a man aggressively drove a car towards his wife, who was walking on the sidewalk with children in a stroller and holding hands, and rammed the wall of the house. The wife and children were somewhat protected and injured by the return of the house portal. A passer-by saved himself with one jump.
Web links
- Amok run in Graz on the city portal of the state capital Graz
Individual evidence
- ↑ lt time of the crime. Heute.at ( Memento of 28 September 2015, Internet Archive )
- ↑ Joint declaration by the city government ( Memento from June 22, 2015 in the Internet Archive ), City of Graz website, accessed on June 22, 2015.
- ↑ Victims of amok in rehabilitation clinic died , Kleine Zeitung, accessed on October 8, 2016
- ↑ A fatality was newly married , kleinezeitung.at, accessed on June 21, 2015.
- ↑ Amok run in Graz: three adults still in critical condition . In: salzburg.com , accessed on June 21, 2015.
- ^ Graz: Authorities check contacts of the gunman , diepresse.com, accessed on June 27, 2015.
- ↑ 3 single images, indexed 20-06-2015 12:25:25; ...: 26; ...: 27. In: Kronenzeitung, print from June 28, 2015, graphic p. 18.
- ↑ Christoph Feurstein: Die Frau des Amokfahrer - Exclusive interview, tv.orf.at, accessed on June 28, 2015.
- ↑ Press report with crime scene card. ( Memento from June 21, 2015 in the Internet Archive ) In: BR-Online .
- ↑ "Not only Graz is shocked, but Kalsdorf too" . In: kleinezeitung.at , accessed on June 21, 2015.
- ↑ Graz amok driver was divorced by mutual agreement from his wife on derstandard.at
- ↑ Amok driver freaked out in custody In: kleinezeitung.at , accessed on July 6, 2015
- ↑ Tiroler Tageszeitung Online: Detention check canceled - people who drove amok from Graz only in court in 2016 , accessed on March 9, 2020
- ^ Prison custody for Graz amok driver Alen R. canceled, not culpable on krone.at
- ↑ Trial against amok drivers starts in September on kleinezeitung.at
- ↑ Amokfahrt Graz: investigation completed nachrichten.at, July 5, 2016, accessed September 19, 2016.
- ^ Grazer Amokfahrer Anstalt instead of prison Die Presse, accessed on June 16, 2016
- ↑ a b c Fourth day of the trial: Graz rampage drivers for work-up "I need therapy" Der Standard, ticker review for the 4th day of the trial
- ↑ Fifth day of the trial of the Graz rampage, Der Standard, ticker review, 5th day of the trial
- ↑ a b Ticker review for the first day of the trial Die Presse
- ↑ a b Ticker readers for the second day of the trial. The press
- ↑ a b Ticker readers for the third day of the trial Die Presse
- ↑ a b Ticker followers on the first day of the trial Der Standard
- ↑ a b Ticker review for the second day of the process, Der Standard
- ↑ a b Ticker review for the third day of the process, Der Standard
- ↑ a b Ticker review for the seventh day of the trial, Der Standard
- ↑ Ticker review for the sixth day of the trial, Der Standard
- ↑ Ticker for the sixth day of the trial Die Presse
- ↑ Life imprisonment for amok drivers on kurier.at
- ↑ Lifelong confirmed for Graz amok drivers , ORF Online, June 27, 2017
- ^ The act of the gunman Falter, accessed on June 16, 2016
- ↑ a b “Amokfahrt through Graz city center” derstandard.at, accessed on June 20, 2015.
- ↑ a b "Amokfahrt in Graz: Three Dead in Graz City Center" derstandard.at, accessed on June 20, 2015.
- ^ Commemoration for the dead and injured after the rampage in Graz , accessed on June 21, 2015.
- ↑ Around 500 people at the commemoration , diepresse.com, accessed on June 21, 2015.
- ↑ Memorial service: 600 people in the parish church , kleinezeitung.at, accessed on June 21, 2015.
- ↑ Graz plans a funeral procession through the city , kleinezeitung.at, accessed on June 21, 2015.
- ↑ 12,000 people took part in the funeral march , kleinezeitung.at, accessed on June 28, 2015.
- ↑ Pretrial detention for Viennese amok drivers extended orf.at, October 18, 2016, accessed October 18, 2016.
- ↑ Three injured: Graz: Man wanted to run over wife and children krone.at, May 16, 2016, accessed October 18, 2016.
- ↑ Romanian wanted to run his wife and children over with a car nachrichten.at, May 16, 2016, accessed October 18, 2016.