Berlin Pride attack raises questions over suspect’s release

German officials are facing mounting questions over why a man known to police for crimes and Islamist extremism was free before he allegedly drove into a Berlin Pride crowd, killing a Polish woman and injuring at least 29 people.

Authorities identified the suspect as Abdul Ballout, a 21-year-old German citizen with Lebanese heritage. Officials said he plowed a rented vehicle into people celebrating one of Europe’s largest LGBTQ+ Pride events on Saturday night, a few hundred yards from the Brandenburg Gate, and apparently attacked others with a machete. Ballout was shot and killed by police in a Berlin suburb on Sunday after a 24-hour manhunt.

Germany’s Interior Minister Alexander Dobrindt said Ballout “had previously drawn attention to himself through a high volume of criminal offences, radicalisation and affiliation with the Islamist scene.” Chancellor Friedrich Merz said Monday he wanted answers on how the attack could have been prevented.

“We must do everything to protect people in Germany as best possible from such criminals, from dangerous people who for whatever reason can’t be taken into custody,” Merz told reporters. He said it was too soon to detail political consequences, but promised action “with prudence, but also with determination.”

Ballout had a criminal record dating back several years. Berlin prosecutors told CBS News he was found guilty in 2019 of assaulting someone in a schoolyard at a Berlin high school. In 2022, he was convicted in juvenile court of assault and extortion with intent to rob.

Prosecutors say signs of extremism emerged in 2024, when Ballout posted Islamic State propaganda on Instagram. The following year, he traveled to Lebanon intending to reach Syria and join ISIS, according to prosecutors. The BBC reported prosecutors said he traveled via Turkey to Lebanon and met people he believed were Islamic State members. He was arrested in Lebanon in July 2025 and sentenced to three months in prison for incitement to religious and sectarian conflict.

After returning to Germany in November 2025, Ballout was arrested at Berlin Brandenburg Airport and held in pretrial detention. In May, a Berlin court convicted him of preparing a serious act of violence endangering the state, publishing ISIS propaganda and other charges. He received a juvenile sentence of one year and 10 months, but it was suspended while prosecutors appealed for a longer sentence. Prosecutors said the court took into account his time jailed in Lebanon and in pretrial detention, as well as his admission of guilt and claim that he had distanced himself from ISIS.

Dobrindt told RTL the suspended sentence was “certainly incomprehensible… given the level of danger involved in this case.” Berlin Mayor Kai Wegner told RBB TV he was “at a loss for words” over the court’s decision, while stressing judicial independence.

After his release, Ballout was placed under probation supervision and ordered into a deradicalization screening program. Cornelia Lotthammer, communications director for the Berlin-based Violence Prevention Network, told CBS News the group was preparing to tell authorities he was not suitable for the program because his cooperation appeared “fake.”

“Our colleagues could tell that he wasn’t very interested in a real deradicalization process,” Lotthammer said. “He gave the answers they wanted to hear. But of course, our colleagues noticed this.” She said staff had no sign he was planning an imminent attack and would have contacted police if they had.

Thomas Mücke, an extremism expert with the same network, told ARD television Ballout appeared “very composed, very cautious, very controlled and very friendly,” adding that such behavior made it difficult to assess him fully.

Police searched Ballout’s home in Berlin-Schöneberg on July 3 over an initial suspected weapons law violation, CBS News reported, citing prosecutors. They found only a toy gun, and the case was dismissed.

Hundreds gathered after the attack at a makeshift memorial near the Brandenburg Gate, leaving flowers, candles, rainbow flags and handwritten signs. “This is not normal; those are just people; they should not be judged or killed for their choice of love,” one mourner told CBS News.

The attack has intensified debate in Germany over security, extremism and how authorities handle people classified as threats. Merz said if such individuals cannot be detained, their freedom of movement should be restricted “as much as possible.”