Berlin pride attack suspect shot dead by police after manhunt; 1 killed, 29 injured in vehicle and machete rampage

The suspect in a deadly attack at Berlin's Christopher Street Day (CSD) parade was shot and killed by a special operations unit (SEK) on Sunday evening in a garden colony in the Spandau district. The 21-year-old, identified as Abdul B., was located around 18:00 and, according to police, ran at officers with a stabbing weapon, prompting them to open fire. He died at the scene despite immediate resuscitation efforts by the Berlin fire brigade.

The attack on Saturday

A woman was killed and 29 other people were injured, some seriously, when a van was driven into a crowd near the CSD route on Saturday evening. The driver then fled the vehicle and, according to Federal Interior Minister Alexander Dobrindt, attacked passersby with a stabbing weapon, believed to be a machete. The parade, which had drawn tens of thousands of people and more than 80 trucks with music heading toward the Tiergarten for a closing party at the Brandenburg Gate, was broken off as a result.

Everything points to an Islamist terror attack.

By Sunday afternoon, police confirmed that none of the injured remained in life-threatening condition.

The suspect's background

Abdul B. was born in Berlin in 2005, a German citizen with a Lebanese background; his mother was naturalised in Germany in 2002. Authorities said he had become radicalised in recent months and belonged to the Islamist scene. The Berlin Public Prosecutor General's Office disclosed that he had tried multiple times in 2025 to join the Islamic State (IS) terrorist militia abroad. He was arrested in Lebanon in July 2025 and spent three months in custody there. After his release, he returned to Germany on 17 November and was arrested again immediately at BER airport.

He has a high number of prior offences and a history of Islamist radicalisation.

Judicial history

Abdul B. was held in pre-trial detention for months before being convicted in May 2026 by a juvenile court at the Tiergarten district court on charges including preparation of a serious act of violence endangering the state. He received a youth sentence of one year and ten months. The court lifted the existing arrest warrant, stating that pre-trial detention primarily serves to secure criminal proceedings and should not function as an anticipated punishment. The verdict is not legally binding because the Public Prosecutor General's Office appealed, seeking a longer, non-suspended sentence and the continuation of the arrest warrant. During the trial, Abdul B. had shown himself to be largely confessional and had distanced himself from IS, according to the prosecutor's office statement. At the beginning of July 2026, investigators searched his apartment in Berlin-Schöneberg on suspicion of a weapons law violation.

The manhunt and fatal confrontation

In the early hours after the attack, police announced they had identified a suspect known to authorities. A photograph of the 21-year-old was released on Sunday morning as part of a public appeal for information. Shortly after 18:00 on Sunday, the suspect was located in a Kleingartenanlage in the Spandau area of the Großer Tiergarten. Berlin's SEK unit confronted him and, according to a police statement, he moved toward officers with a stabbing weapon. Shots were fired, fatally wounding him. The Federal Public Prosecutor General, Germany's highest prosecutorial authority with jurisdiction over Islamist terrorism cases, has taken over the investigation.

That the Berlin police have the suspect within 24 hours is a great success for the investigative authorities. And I am very grateful for that.

Broader context

Germany's domestic intelligence agency counted 28,645 individuals in the Islamist milieu in the past year, up from 28,280 in 2024. An estimated 9,110 are considered violence-oriented. The 2025 Islamist attacks in Berlin, Bielefeld, Essen and Munich were described as symbolic of the ongoing threat. Federal Chancellor Friedrich Merz announced the government would consider consequences and decide with composure but also determination.