The suspect in the Berlin Pride attack that left one person dead and 29 injured was shot and killed by police during a confrontation on Sunday in a suburb of the city, authorities said. Abdul Ballout, a German citizen with Lebanese roots, was shot in a Berlin suburb after a nearly 24-hour search that began after the downtown attack, the AP reports. He was suspected of driving a van into a crowd near the Pride festival on Saturday night before apparently stabbing others with a machete in what authorities said they believe to be an Islamic extremist terror attack.
Ballout was tracked down around 6pm Sunday at a garden in Spandau, the city's police department wrote on X. The post said that he apparently ran toward officers with a sharp instrument and that police fired at least one shot. Ballout died at the scene. Interior Minister Alexander Dobrindt said he had come to authorities' attention in the past because of numerous previous crimes, of which he didn't give details, and also because of "radicalization and belonging to the Islamist scene." He said Ballout had been given a suspended sentence of 1 year, 10 months. He said that Ballout was born in Germany, and that his mother was naturalized in 2002—three years before he was born. He had tried to join the Islamic State group, prosecutors said.
According to police, a white van drove into the Tiergarten park around 10pm and hit several people before slamming into a tree. The closing party at the Pride festival was ongoing at the time next to the Brandenburg Gate, a short distance away. Police said a woman was killed. Berlin's fire service said that three people sustained life-threatening injuries and another eight were seriously injured. Earlier Saturday, "Berlin celebrated a great day. Berlin was colorful. Berlin showed how diverse, how open this city is. It showed once again that Berlin is the city of freedom," Mayor Kai Wegner said on Sunday. "After 10 p.m., it got dark. Very dark."
On Sunday afternoon, hundreds of mourners gathered at a memorial at the iconic gate. They hugged each other and placed flowers, candles, rainbow flags, and homemade signs. Chancellor Friedrich Merz urged the nation to remain united in the aftermath of the attack. "These acts have only one purpose: They aim to divide our society," he said. "They want to take away from us the most important thing we have: Namely our openness and our freedom." Ashley Jump, a 26-year-old UK resident, traveled to Berlin for the Pride parade but left before the attack. They returned Sunday to leave flowers at the memorial. "As long as humanity has existed, we've existed," Jump said. "And as long as humanity exists, we will exist. We will not be removed."
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