The Afghan national arrested for stabbing to death a two-year-old boy and the 41-year-old man who came to his aid in the Bavarian city of Aschaffenburg on Wednesday was an asylum seeker who was legally obliged to leave the country and had a known history of criminality and mental instability.
As Bild reported, the suspect has been identified as Enamullah O., a 28-year-old Afghan national who entered Germany in November 2022 and claimed asylum.
He was accommodated in a former inn in Alzenau, Lower Franconia. However, investigations reveal he had already traveled through Bulgaria, Austria, and France before arriving in Germany, taking advantage of the European Union’s open-border policies. Fingerprint evaluations confirmed his movements across multiple European countries before settling in Germany.
BREAKING: 🇩🇪‼️ Local media is reporting that teachers from the Aschaffenburg daycare center were walking through Schöntal Park with five small children when the group was deliberately targeted by an Afghan national with a knife.
The 28-year-old suspect is said to have followed… pic.twitter.com/JEfAMjvnkt
— Remix News & Views (@RMXnews) January 22, 2025Despite being flagged by authorities, O. remained in Germany. Reports indicate he was involved in multiple offenses, including drug possession in 2023, and was implicated in at least three violent incidents. He was subsequently admitted to a psychiatric facility, raising further questions about why he had not been deported.
Instead, he remained in the country which facilitated his attack on a daycare group taking a stroll through Schöntal Park with their teachers at around 11:45 a.m. on Wednesday.
Reports indicated he specifically targeted the group, stabbing at least two very young children, killing one and hospitalizing another. A 41-year-old passerby who sought to intervene in the attack was stabbed to death. A teacher was also harmed and required medical treatment.
Legally, he was required to leave Germany and was scheduled for deportation to Bulgaria by the end of 2024. However, this did not happen. On Dec. 4, Enamullah O. claimed in a letter to the immigration authorities that he would voluntarily leave, yet he failed to attend necessary interrogation appointments and remained in the country.
Bavaria’s Interior Minister Joachim Herrmann (CSU) stated there was no immediate evidence of an Islamist motive. However, the attack — the latest in a long line of high-profile mass murders by immigrants — has led to intense scrutiny of Germany’s immigration and asylum policies.
German Chancellor Olaf Scholz sought to condemn the attack, acknowledging it as a possible “terrorist act.”
“I am tired of seeing such acts of violence here every few weeks by perpetrators who came to us to find protection here,” Scholz said, stressing that words alone were not enough.
BREAKING: German Chancellor Olaf Scholz says the murder of a 2-year-old child by an Afghan national in Aschaffenburg is a possible "terrorist act."
"I am tired of seeing such acts of violence here every few weeks by perpetrators who actually came to us to find protection here,"… pic.twitter.com/DZNi5u8pEU
— Remix News & Views (@RMXnews) January 22, 2025Interior Minister Nancy Faeser echoed similar sentiments, expressing her “deep shock” at the incident, using the same phrase she had employed after previous attacks by foreign nationals, including the December 2024 Magdeburg Christmas Market attack, which killed six people and injured 200, and the August 2024 Solingen Festival stabbing that left three dead.
CDU chancellor candidate Friedrich Merz was also “deeply shocked” and claimed that “things cannot continue like this.”
AfD co-leader Alice Weidel, however, took a harder stance, calling for immediate “remigration.”
The attack comes just weeks before Germany’s federal parliamentary elections on Feb. 23.
