A teenager motivated by jihadist ideology faces a third attempted murder charge for attacks in Essen, including stabbings and an assault on a school caretaker.
BERLIN: A teenager motivated by “jihadist ideology” has been charged over a third attack, German prosecutors said Monday, months after he was held on suspicion of two stabbings in the city of Essen.
The Kosovar suspect, identified by prosecutors only as Erjon S., was already suspected of stabbing a teacher at a college he attended and a man chosen at random on the street on September 5, leaving both victims with serious injuries.
Prosecutors now say that on the same day, the suspect, aged 17 at the time, also attacked a caretaker at a primary school.
“He punched him and sprayed him with pepper spray,” a statement from prosecutors said, adding that the caretaker “defended himself” and that Erjon S. was not able to use his knife on him.
A short time later, he allegedly stabbed the college teacher and then went to Essen’s Old Synagogue “without finding anyone of the Jewish faith whom he thought would be suitable to attack”.
He then chose a man at random on the street and stabbed him in the back, prosecutors said.
The charges against the teenager include three counts of attempted murder.
“In order to provoke his own death as a martyr, Erjon S. ran at police officers with his knife outstretched,” prosecutors said, adding that he was shot by police and injured in the face.
He is suspected of having decided in early September that he wanted to “join the jihad against unbelievers” and of having wanted to “kill as many people of the Jewish faith as possible”.
The case was transferred from Essen to federal prosecutors given its “particular importance”, officials said at the time.
The suspect is in detention awaiting trial.
