After the shots were fired at the former rabbi’s house at the old synagogue in Essen, the police are still looking for the perpetrator. “The search continues,” said a spokesman for the Essen police control center on Saturday of the German press agency dpa.
The police increased their presence at the building complex in downtown Essen. So far, a patrol car was usually posted at the building, but on Saturday morning there were at least two. The background is a so-called awareness decree from the Ministry of the Interior, which the Ministry had already sent to all district police authorities on Friday as an “immediate reaction to the shots”. In it, the authorities are instructed to review their personal and property protection measures “against the background of the event in Essen” and adjust them if necessary, as the ministry announced when asked by the dpa.
Bullet holes were discovered on Friday morning in a door to the rabbi’s house at the Old Synagogue. At least four shots were fired. Nobody got hurt. An institute for German-Jewish history is housed in the building hit. It borders directly on the Old Synagogue, which is no longer used as a place of worship. Instead, it houses the “House of Jewish Culture” of the city of Essen.
According to NRW Interior Minister Herbert Reul (CDU), a previously unknown man can be seen on a video as the alleged perpetrator. State security is investigating. The police are looking for witnesses who made observations around the old synagogue between 8 p.m. and 1 a.m. on Friday night.
