German who drove into crowd in Mannheim gets life in prison

The man who drove into a crowd in the German city of Mannheim in March this year has been sentenced to life in prison. Report that German media Thursday. On a German carnival day, Rosenmontag, the man killed two people: an 83-year-old woman and a 54-year-old man. Fourteen people were injured. He was convicted of murder and attempted murder.

On the German holiday, the man drove into a busy shopping street at at least fifty kilometers per hour. When he realized that the street was a dead end and wanted to turn his car around, he was hit by a taxi. The man then shot the window of the taxi with an alarm pistol. He tried to flee and shot himself in the mouth with a blank. The police were able to arrest him a little later.

Mental disorder

The suspicion of a political motive could not be confirmed during the trial. The judge stated that the suspect may have been involved with right-wing ideas and also participated in a demonstration, according to the local newspaper Mannheimer Morgen who was present at the hearing. It is unclear what kind of demonstration this was.

Earlier in the trial, the public prosecutor already announced that there were indications that the perpetrator suffered from a mental disorder. According to a previous diagnosis by an expert, the man suffers from borderline personality disorder. As part of his sentence, the man must be treated in a psychiatric hospital.

“Without this disease, this violent act would not have occurred,” the court president said. The German is said to have unrequited love for an acquaintance with whom he had been in Italy a few days before the incident. The perpetrator said that it felt as if he had failed in all areas of life, writes the Mannheimer Morgen. He already had a criminal record for, among other things, assault.

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