Suspect in Berlin Pride attack shot dead by German police | ABC NEWS — Transcript

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1. 0:00German authorities say the alleged
2. 0:01attacker who drove into crowds at a
3. 0:03Berlin Pride event has been shot dead.
4. 0:07Jared Reed is a reporter for Deutsche
5. 0:09Welle and he joins us now. Thanks very
6. 0:12much for coming on News Breakfast this
7. 0:14morning, Jared. First of all, what
8. 0:15details have local authorities shared
9. 0:18about the suspect?
10. 0:21>> Good to be with you, Steph. What they
11. 0:23have told us is that the suspect was a
12. 0:2521-year-old German national with
13. 0:28Lebanese heritage who was known to
14. 0:32police through what they described as a
15. 0:34quite an extensive criminal history and
16. 0:37also the fact that, according to them,
17. 0:39he was a known member of the local
18. 0:43Islamist scene here in Berlin. What
19. 0:46they've also said today, judicial
20. 0:49authorities have said that this man made
21. 0:53various attempts to leave Germany and
22. 0:56join the Islamic State militant group
23. 0:58and that he made contact with various
24. 1:01individuals in Lebanon that he thought
25. 1:04were members of IS and he ended up
26. 1:07spending a couple of months in prison in
27. 1:10Lebanon and when he returned here to
28. 1:13Germany, he was arrested. He
29. 1:17was given a sentence of 1 year and 10
30. 1:19months in prison for what they described
31. 1:21as preparing a serious act of violence
32. 1:23endangering the state. But as as I
33. 1:26understand, he was released on some kind
34. 1:29of parole and was ordered to participate
35. 1:33in in a kind of deradicalization
36. 1:35program. So, those are some of the
37. 1:38details about the suspect that that we
38. 1:40know so far.
39. 1:42>> And this is just such a devastating turn
40. 1:44of events for an event that's meant to
41. 1:46bring people together. Just how is the
42. 1:48community doing there?
43. 1:51>> Well, people are just really upset and
44. 1:54and shocked and there there was a vigil
45. 1:57at the Brandenburg Gate in in central
46. 2:00Berlin. So so very very close to where
47. 2:03the attack site happened. And I was just
48. 2:07looking at some pictures earlier and
49. 2:08people were waving rainbow flags and and
50. 2:13some people were crying and I think for
51. 2:16the LGBTQ plus community it really is
52. 2:20devastating because I think
53. 2:22people are kind of struggling to to
54. 2:25comprehend how how
55. 2:28a number of people, one woman and I
56. 2:30think a 29 something were seriously
57. 2:33injured. How these people who were out
58. 2:35celebrating what is a vibrant and
59. 2:38peaceful festival
60. 2:40was so so badly affected. And we've also
61. 2:43heard from the mayor of Berlin. His name
62. 2:45is Kai Wegner. He says he said today
63. 2:49that this was an attack on all of us.
64. 2:51That's a quote from him. And I think
65. 2:53that really kind of does get to the
66. 2:55heart of of how people are feeling.
67. 2:57>> Obviously a really long recovery ahead
68. 2:59for a lot of those injured. But now that
69. 3:01a suspect has been shot dead, what are
70. 3:03the next steps?
71. 3:06>> Well, that's right. The suspect is dead,
72. 3:08but the investigations really are only
73. 3:10just beginning. The police were saying
74. 3:12earlier today that they are trying to
75. 3:15work out whether this suspect may have
76. 3:17had accomplices. So that's something
77. 3:20that they are definitely going to be
78. 3:22looking into. Just more broadly this is
79. 3:25going to be putting a big focus on
80. 3:28security and and counter-terrorism
81. 3:30measures. And unfortunately this is not
82. 3:33the first time that a vehicle has been
83. 3:37used as as a deadly weapon at a public
84. 3:41event here in Germany. So there is
85. 3:43really going to be a focus on on public
86. 3:47safety. And this is going to raise a lot
87. 3:49of questions around that.