Homicide in Frankfurt Central Station in 2019

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Frankfurt main station, platform 7, commemoration of the death

In the homicide at Frankfurt Central Station on July 29, 2019 in Frankfurt am Main , a man pushed a mother with her eight-year-old son in front of an incoming train. The mother was able to get to safety, the son died. A third person was able to fend off the attack.

The alleged perpetrator, a refugee from Eritrea living in Switzerland , was arrested. The Frankfurt am Main regional court assessed the crime as murder and attempted murder, but no penalty was imposed because he was incapable of guilt due to a mental illness .

Sequence of events

On July 29, 2019, shortly before 10 a.m. on platform 7 of Frankfurt Central Station, a 40-year-old mother and her eight-year-old son were pushed into the track bed in front of an incoming Intercity Express (ICE). The mother was able to get to safety, the boy died on the scene. Another woman, 78 years old, is also said to have been attacked by the attacker, but was able to defend herself, was injured in the shoulder and suffered a shock. The suspect, Habte A., fled, but was followed by passers-by and was arrested by the police. None of the victims are said to have had a connection to the alleged perpetrator.

Perpetrator

The alleged perpetrator Habte A. (* 1979 ) comes from Eritrea . He came to Zurich in 2006 and applied for asylum , which was approved in 2008. For six years he worked as a fitter in Aarau . In 2011 A. received a permanent residence permit .

When he lost his job there due to a lack of orders, A. was initially unemployed despite good job references and references. In 2017, he took part in an integration program of the Swiss Workers' Relief Organization and, thanks to this support , was employed by the Zurich Transport Authority (VBZ), initially on a temporary basis, and worked there in the body shop. The fixed-term contract was extended several times, but despite good performance initially not converted into an open-ended contract. According to his then job coach, A. was frustrated and resigned because of this. There was "program fatigue" before he finally got the desired permanent position. He was considered to be exemplary integrated and is a member of a Christian denomination. His former job coach said that his consistently good job performance and professionalism had been noticed positively, and his superior at VBZ also said benevolently: “He's always at the Büez and not someone chatting or standing around. He's really dedicated and reliable. "

According to acquaintances, A. did not show any aggressiveness. However, psychological changes were noticed, after which A. allegedly had been hearing voices since summer 2018. In January 2019 A. was on sick leave for the first time due to mental health problems. He stopped working until the act in July 2019.

His family doctor referred him to a psychologist or, according to other sources, to a psychiatrist after the doctor had found signs of a mental disorder "with delusional formation". A. therefore feared that train passengers and work colleagues could read his mind and that other people would manipulate him and destroy his life. He felt influenced and controlled by cell phones and electromagnetic waves.

A. previously had no difficulties with the judiciary; the responsible police authorities announced that in the years of his previous stay only one "minor traffic offense" had become on record. On July 25, 2019, he was put out to be wanted by the Zurich canton police because he is said to have locked his wife and three children together with his neighbor; he is said to have attacked the latter beforehand. For both women, the attack came unexpectedly, because they had "never experienced it like this." The public prosecutor's office assumed the alleged perpetrator had psychological problems.

The Zurich canton police assumed that A. had no extremist motives; rather, after initial investigations, it was assumed that mental health problems were the cause of his criminally relevant acts at the end of July 2019.

Criminal investigation

In December 2019, the Frankfurt public prosecutor announced that the alleged perpetrator was incapable of guilt because he had suffered from schizophrenic psychosis during the act . She applied for a security procedure to be carried out in order to place Habte A. permanently in a psychiatric clinic.

On August 19, 2020, the trial of the killing began at the Frankfurt am Main regional court . A present psychiatric report assumed an incapacity for guilt due to a schizophrenic psychosis. In contrast, there were video recordings that showed the perpetrator watching the track before the crime. On August 28, 2020, the Frankfurt Regional Court pronounced the verdict. The act was to be assessed as murder and attempted murder, but the perpetrator was incapable of guilt because he suffered from paranoid schizophrenia . He was admitted to a psychiatric ward.

Reactions

If A., so Yonas Gebrehiwet from the Eritrean Media Association in Switzerland , is not known to the local Eritrean community. However, she expressed her dismay at the act; their thoughts and prayers are with the victims and their families. Gebrehiwet also expressed concern about the rise in racism the community was experiencing after the incident, including internet hate speech, insults and threats. People with an Eritrean background would be placed under general suspicion.

At the head end of platform 7 of the main train station, flowers, cuddly toys and other signs of sympathy were laid down by people on a large scale. Even a week after the fact, the press described this temporary memorial as a sea of ​​flowers. A call for donations in favor of the bereaved raised over 100,000 euros in the first week.

In connection with the incident, the SPD traffic politician Martin Burkert criticized the "insufficient supervision" on the platforms. Jörg Radek from the police union spoke out in favor of platform screen doors . More police forces could not reliably prevent acts like in Frankfurt.

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. Mother and child encountered the ICE at Frankfurt Central Station - eight-year-old dies. hessenschau.de , July 29, 2019, accessed on July 30, 2019 .
  2. Katharina Iskandar, Johannes Ritter, Helmut Schwan: Attack at the Frankfurt train station: Platform 7, ICE 529 - and a riddle . ISSN  0174-4909 ( faz.net [accessed August 6, 2019]).
  3. a b c d e f Birte Bredow, Annette Langer: What is known about the suspect: An attack in Zurich, an attack in Frankfurt . In: spiegel.de . July 30, 2019 ( spiegel.de [accessed July 30, 2019]).
  4. Katharina Iskandar, Helmut Schwan, Lucia Schmidt: Attack in Frankfurt: Habte A. acted with determined calm . ISSN  0174-4909 ( faz.net [accessed August 6, 2019]).
  5. After the violence in Frankfurt: Seehofer demands more police presence at train stations . ISSN  0174-4909 ( faz.net [accessed August 6, 2019]).
  6. a b c d e Before the act, Habte A. posted a photo of his son ( memento from July 31, 2019 in the Internet Archive ), blick.ch , July 30, 2019.
  7. a b Habte A. (40) is the ICE child killer from Frankfurt! ( Memento of July 30, 2019 in the Internet Archive ), blick.ch, July 30, 2019.
  8. Attack at Frankfurt Central Station: The suspect had been posted for arrest in Switzerland since Thursday , nzz.ch , August 1, 2019.
  9. SAH Zurich Annual Report 2017 ( memento of August 9, 2019 in the Internet Archive ), sah-schweiz.ch , pp. 10–15.
  10. a b Swiss investigators assume the suspect is mentally ill , spiegel.de, July 30, 2019.
  11. a b Friends of the Gleis-Schubers noticed a strange change last summer , focus.de , September 2, 2019.
  12. Habte A. was considered to be well integrated: This is the platform offender , focus.de, September 3, 2019.
  13. Habte A. is said to have felt persecuted , sueddeutsche.de , August 1, 2019.
  14. a b Habte A. felt he was being followed by train passengers , tagesanzeiger.ch , August 1, 2019.
  15. Katharina Iskandar: After the locker robbery: "The perpetrators were downright amateurish" . ISSN  0174-4909 ( faz.net [accessed August 6, 2019]).
  16. Case of the eight-year-old in Frankfurt who hit an ICE: The suspect is to be permanently housed in a psychiatric clinic , nzz.ch, December 23, 2019.
  17. Anna-Sophia Lang: An unimaginable act , faz.net , August 19, 2020, accessed on August 30, 2020.
  18. Offender is admitted to psychiatry , t-online.de , August 28, 2020, accessed on August 30, 2020.
  19. Anna-Sophia Lang: Not to be understood , faz.net, August 29, 2020, accessed on August 30, 2020.
  20. Marvin Ziegele: Living with uncertainty. In: fr.de . August 7, 2019, accessed August 7, 2019 .
  21. a b Discussion about security at train stations after a fatal attack in Frankfurt. In: nau.ch . July 30, 2019, accessed July 31, 2019 .
  22. Antje Blinda: How could train stations be made safer? In: spiegel.de. July 30, 2019, accessed July 31, 2019 .