A police officer who was seriously injured in the Islamist knife attack in the German city of Mannheim on Friday has died from his injuries, local authority leaders confirmed on Sunday.
The 29-year-old was stabbed in the neck by the 25-year-old Afghan migrant during an attack in the city’s market square. The knifeman had been targeting an event being held by the anti-Islam politician Michael Stürzenberger, who was one of five others injured in the stabbing spree.
The news that the police officer had succumbed to his injuries was announced by the Karlsruhe public prosecutor’s office, the Mannheim police headquarters, and the State Criminal Police Office on Sunday evening.
Minister-President of the state of Baden-Württemberg Winfried Kretschmann said the police officer’s passing “has shaken me to the core.”
“All our thoughts are with the officer’s family, relatives, and colleagues,” Kretschmann told press, adding the attack was evidence of the “often incalculable risk police officers are exposed to every day” in Germany.
Footage of the attack went viral on social media within minutes of it taking place, showing the police officer being stabbed multiple times in the head and neck. It is understood the victim underwent emergency surgery immediately after the attack and was induced into a coma he failed to wake from.
“We mourn the loss of a police officer who gave his life for our safety,” the public prosecutor’s office and the police announced.
“We are deeply shocked – the loss affects us all very much and leaves us speechless.” The entire police family is thinking of the friends, relatives, and family of the deceased colleague,” Mannheim police added in a social media post paying tribute to the victim.
Stürzenberger also took to Facebook to remember the officer. “Terrible news: The police officer who was stabbed twice in the neck by the Afghan knife attacker in Mannheim on Friday unfortunately didn’t make it. My thoughts are with his family and his police colleagues, who could always rely on him. He also did his best in Mannheim on Friday. May Rouven L. rest in peace.”
Despite the latest attack by an Islamist extremist on the streets of Germany, local politicians continued to call for unity and an understanding of the country’s commitment to cultural diversity.
Local CDU mayor, Christian Specht, said the police officer’s death was evidence of what “hatred and incitement can do,” and urged citizens to “pause in the face of this tragic development and work together to unite our city society in all its diversity and avoid any division!”
Federal Finance Minister Christian Lindner (FDP) was more forthright, calling for greater powers to nullify the threat of Islamic extremism.
“The death of the young police officer touches me deeply,” Lindner wrote on X. “What is happening in our country makes me angry. We must defend ourselves against Islamist terrorism. We will continue to strengthen the security authorities financially to do this. No more false tolerance,” he added.
While federal leaders including Chancellor Olaf Scholz and Interior Minister Nancy Faeser, both of the Socialist Democratic Party (SPD), offered the usual tributes on social media, AfD co-leader Alice Weidel took aim at the federal government she claimed was responsible for the dramatic rise in the Islamist threat on German soil.
“My thoughts are not only with his relatives but with all the officers who put their lives in danger every day due to unspeakable policies,” she wrote on X.
Despite the heinous act committed on Friday, left-wing protesters took to the streets of Mannheim on Sunday to protest against the rise in popularity of right-wing parties in the region – a demonstration that required a significant police presence to preserve the peace.
