One week ago, a 21-year-old stabbed a 52-year-old man in a homeless shelter in the German town of Regen. Local police disclosed the incident on Monday, adding that the killer had cut off the victim’s head with a knife. The perpetrator refuses to testify, so the investigators have yet to find out the motive behind this particularly brutal crime.
The Die Welt daily, which reported on the case, stated that according to the police, the forensic doctor concluded at autopsy that the victim was no longer alive at the time of the beheading. The suspect, who came to Germany from Somalia, was detained several hours after the crime and later taken to a district hospital.
A local police spokesman said it was not yet clear what the motive of the attacker was. So far, the suspect refuses to cooperate with the police and will not testify.
“We assume that there was a dispute between the perpetrator and the victim, and the two men knew each other. So far, there is no indication of a political or religious motive,” said the spokesman.
He added that in recent months, the perpetrator has been responsible for several thefts and injuring someone else. He had been treated once before at the district hospital.
Regen Mayor Andreas Kroner criticized the responsible authorities for not informing the city about the danger posed by the suspect.
“After being in the district hospital for the first time, he was simply sent back to us with no one telling us anything. That is unacceptable to me,” he said.
According to Kroner, based on consultation with the town, the inhabitants of the homeless shelter were cared for by several people, including refugees and employees of the local food bank.
“I don’t want to imagine what could have happened there. It evokes many memories of the case in Würzburg,” said the mayor, referring to the attack in June this year, in which a 24-year-old man, also of Somali descent, killed three people and seriously injured five others. In this case, the perpetrator also lived in a hostel for the homeless. Police shot him during the arrest.
Kroner plans to write to the Ministry of the Interior and contact the Bavarian Association of Cities and Towns to promote better communication between the authorities in such cases.
Title image: Police officers secure the crime scene in central Wuerzburg, Germany, Saturday, June 26, 2021. German police say several people were killed and others injured in a knife attack in the southern city of Wuerzburg on Friday. (AP Photo/Michael Probst)
