Berlin Pride Attack Suspect Killed

PHOTO CAPTION: A view of a makeshift memorial at Tiergarten park after a deadly incident in which a vehicle crashed into a crowd near Berlin's annual Christopher Street Day Pride parade on Saturday evening, leaving multiple people injured and the parade called off, in Berlin, Germany, July 27, 2026. The placard reads: "We honor all the victims and survivors. We will not allow ourselves to be divided". REUTERS/Christian Mang

BERLIN, July 27 — The 21-year-old suspect in the weekend attack on Berlin’s Pride celebration was shot dead by police on Sunday after a nationwide manhunt.

One person was killed and more than two dozen others were wounded in the attack.

German Interior Minister Alexander Dobrindt identified the suspect as Abdul Ballout, a German citizen with Lebanese roots who was born and raised in Berlin.

According to a court document, Ballout lived with his mother and three sisters in Berlin’s Schoeneberg neighborhood, near the site of the attack.

In May, Ballout was convicted of preparing a serious act of violence endangering the state. Prosecutors said he was sentenced under juvenile law to one year and 10 months in prison.

The court deferred a decision on whether to suspend the sentence and released him for six months under the supervision of a probation officer. Prosecutors appealed the ruling and sought a longer sentence.

Prosecutors said the court considered Ballout’s largely cooperative testimony, his stated distancing from Islamic State and the absence of any concrete danger resulting from the offenses when determining the sentence.

That case centered on allegations that Ballout sought to join Islamic State in 2025. Prosecutors said he had also posted prohibited Islamic State propaganda on Instagram twice in June 2024.

According to prosecutors, Ballout first tried unsuccessfully to travel through Turkey to Mauritania. In May 2025, he flew from Berlin to Lebanon with the intention of eventually reaching Syria and joining Islamic State.

While in Lebanon, he reportedly contacted several people through Telegram whom he believed were Islamic State members.

Ballout was arrested in Lebanon in July 2025 and later sentenced by a military court to three months in prison on charges that included inciting religious and sectarian conflict.

He returned to Germany in November 2025 and was arrested at Berlin Brandenburg Airport. He remained in custody until his conviction in May.

Ballout had previously been convicted in Germany in February 2022 under juvenile law for assault and robbery-related offenses committed when he was a teenager.

Investigators also searched his Schoeneberg home on July 3 on suspicion that he had violated Germany’s weapons laws. Prosecutors said officers found only a toy gun and later dropped the case.

A court document described Ballout as a practicing Muslim who had followed the Shi’ite branch of Islam for several years, which had repeatedly caused conflict with relatives who were predominantly Sunni Muslims.

The document said he was deeply religious, prayed five times a day and regularly attended Friday prayers. It also said he was briefly married under Islamic law to a woman from Salzburg between 2023 and 2024.

(Source: Reuters)