Five days after the bloody attack in a Duisburg gym, a 26-year-old suspect was arrested on Sunday night. This Monday, the Syrian national will be brought before the magistrate, said the Duisburg public prosecutor Jill McCuller on Sunday at the request of the German Press Agency in Düsseldorf. Nothing was initially known about the details of the access and the background to the crime.
In the attack on Tuesday evening, four people were seriously injured with a cutting and stabbing weapon – a 21-year-old is still in mortal danger.
For the residents of the Ruhr area city, which in recent years has often caused negative headlines and concerns as a crime hotspot, the news of the successful access shortly after midnight is a great relief.
Motive is unclear
The concern that a stabber would be walking around freely for days was a burden – even if NRW Interior Minister Herbert Reul (CDU) had signaled the all-clear just one day after the crime, stating: “At the moment we are not assuming that it it’s a spree.”
Nevertheless, the motive for the crime was still completely in the dark on Sunday. The public prosecutor limited himself to little information.
For days there has been speculation as to whether the bloody deed in the gym could be related to another unsolved crime that occurred on Easter Sunday – also in downtown Duisburg. On April 9, a 35-year-old man was found on the street with a large number of fatal stab and cut injuries. Acquaintances found the man who had just left a party.
“So far there has been no suspicion that the accused could also be connected to the Easter crime,” McCuller told the dpa. “But we are also investigating in all directions and checking connections.”
Search also with photos
The Duisburg murder commission had been searching for the suspect who had now been arrested since Friday, using photos from a surveillance camera. The public prosecutor’s office initially did not want to comment on whether the bearded suspect, as previously reported by “Bild”, was recognized by neighbors and overpowered by a special task force in his apartment.
Of the four victims of the attack in the gym, two 24-year-olds were in hospital at the weekend in addition to the critically injured 21-year-old, but not in mortal danger. Only one 32-year-old injured person has since been released from the hospital. Whether they were accidental victims initially remained unanswered.
