Halle synagogue shooting: Difference between revisions

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The 2019 Halle attack was a shooting incident that occurred on 9 October 2019 in Halle, Saxony-Anhalt, Germany.^[1] Two people were killed, and two others were severely injured.^[1][2][3] Federal investigators called the attack a far-right and antisemitic crime; the Federal Prosecutor of Germany took over the investigations and declared it to be a "violation of Germany's internal security".

The attack started around noon^[1] on the Jewish holy day of Yom Kippur. The suspect live-streamed himself trying, but failing, to enter the synagogue of Halle in which there were 70 to 80 people.^[1][4] The synagogue and the Jewish graveyard are located in Paulusviertel (Paulus-quarter), near the old town. The attacker tried to invade the yard, firing shots and tried to light up self-made explosives.^{[citation needed]} The yard of the synagogue is surrounded by a 2.5-metre (8 ft 2 in) stone wall.^{[citation needed]}

A nearby female pedestrian was fatally shot in the back at the street outside the nearby Jewish graveyard. Another pedestrian approached the offender and was unsuccessfully shot. Given the gun jam, the man fled.^[5] Afterwards he drove by a Turkish kebab shop in a nearby street. The attacker threw an explosive at the shop and opened fire with a shotgun. A painter, who was in the shop, was killed.^{[citation needed]}

The office of the mayor of Halle declared a "rampage situation" and asked the local community to stay at home via the German emergency alert system Katwarn.^[1][6]

The suspect tried to flee in a Volkswagen, he had rented from a car rental. It was followed by an 80 km long chase from Halle till Burgenlandkreis through entire Sachen-Anhalt. First he drove to Wiedersdorf near Landsberg. Armed with combat gear, helmet and heavy weapons, he heads to a workshop and demands a new car. But the employee refuses. An electrician also dismisses the suspect. Stephan B. then opens fire and shot the electrician. The suspect took a parked taxi from the workshop and raced. The electrican was later flown to a hospital. Via the Autobahn A9 he continues his the escape south, passing Leipzig in the west. At Weißenfels he drove off the motorway and turns onto the Landstraße B91 in the direction of Zeitz. At Werschen, a district of Hohenmölsen the police used a trap to stop him. At a a single-lane construction site, a massiv truck blocked the street and caused rear-end collision. The suspect apparently ramed the truck and doesn't expect that dozens of police officers, including SEK forces came from hidden places and emergency vehicles blocked the taxi. B. was sustaining minor injuries.^[7]

Shots were reported^[8] in Wiedersdorf, Landsberg, about 15 kilometres (9.3 mi) east of Halle. At 4:00 pm^[8] federal police forces entered the scene, brought by a helicopter.^[9]

Two injured people had been admitted to the university hospital Universitätsklinikum Halle with gunshot wounds.^{[citation needed]}

The security for Jewish institutions across the country was increased.^[10]

At the time of the incident it was not clear if there was one suspect or more. In the evening the police declared that there was only one shooter, who was arrested.

The Federal Prosecutor (Generalbundesanwalt) is investigating since the attack is a potential violation of Germany's internal security.^[11] The prosecutor indicated that it is investigating a "murder with special significance".^[11] According to the prosecutor's spokesperson, for now there are no indications of a terrorist organisation.^[12] Security sources said the arrested suspect is a German national who had no prior criminal history, and that the indications of a right-wing extremist background became stronger.^[13]

The suspect, a male 27-year-old German citizen, was named by the media as Stephan Balliet.^[14]

On the same day of the attack and the suspect's arrest, federal investigators declared that the suspect has "almost certainly a far-right motivation for the crime". Comparisons were drawn between the Christchurch mosque shootings.^[15] In the evening, Federal Minister of the Interior Horst Seehofer said it was "at least" an antisemitic attack.^[12]

Like the Christchurch murders, the suspect streamed the attack online with video and audio from his action camera on his helmet. According to ARD-journalist the entire footage is about 35 minutes and was streamed to a gaming portal called Twitch.tv. According to Frankfurter Rundschau, the video shows the suspect displaying his weapons and speaking extreme antisemitic content in "bad English".^[16]

Balliet claims that the Holocaust did not happen. On his motive for the attack, he says that feminism lead to fewer births, so there is mass immigration. Balliet blames "the Jew" for the alleged issues. He refers to other right-wing assassins, such as those of Christchurch.^[17] During the attack the shooter's homemade weapons repeatedly malfunction and he refers to himself as a loser, being unable to breach any of the synagogue's doors, shooting his own tire by accident and being unable to fire his gun.

In addition to the video, the assassin has also left a kind of manifesto. Here he follows his alleged "role models" Anders Breivik and Brenton Tarrant. It was discovered by the ICSR London. The document contains detailed photos and descriptions of his self-made weapons arsenal. In addition, there is information about his intentions and plans. It is soaked in an extreme anti-Semitism. He chose the Halle synagogue as the target because it was the closest place where he could find "the Jew". He wrote, if he could kill only one Jew, that was worth the attack. His statement was written in English, presumably to reach a global audience, and shows his belief in a "Jewish world conspiracy".^[5]

At the event commemorating the 30th anniversary of the peaceful revolution in Leipzig, German President Frank-Walter Steinmeier called for solidarity with the fellow Jewish citizens. Chancellor Angela Merkel also offered her condolences to the families of the victims.

The members of the European Parliament stood for a minute of silence on the day of the attack to remember the victims and send condolences to the families.^[18]

Josef Schuster, president of Zentralrat der Juden in Deutschland, told TV station Das Erste that on the day of the attack there were no police patrols close to the Jewish facility in Halle. If the regular police force had been there, the second murder in the shop could have been avoided, Schuster claimed.^[19]

• Pittsburgh synagogue shooting
• Poway synagogue shooting

^s Initial reports mentioned several suspects. Meanwhile, dpa reports based on security sources, the indications consolidate around a solitary perpetrator.^[12]