A 41-year-old Turkish national has been committed to a psychiatric hospital following an armed rampage in Dresden that ended with police shooting him twice. The investigating judge at the Dresden district court issued the placement order after prosecutors cited evidence of severe mental illness and found no indications of an Islamist motive, despite the suspect shouting "Allahu Akbar" during the confrontation.
The man first targeted three construction workers with a firearm in the Friedrichstadt district on Wednesday morning before entering a supermarket. Upon leaving, he knelt, made the religious exclamation, and pointed the weapon at responding officers, who opened fire. He was hospitalised in serious condition and has not yet been fit for questioning.
Prosecutors are investigating suspected attempted dangerous bodily harm, threats, and illegal possession of a firearm. The suspect, convicted in 2013 of a double stabbing and paroled in 2022, is also suspected of attacking a 23-year-old with a hammer in the city centre the preceding Sunday.