Tuesday, May 20
“Highly unusual” Knife attack on police officer in Neukölln
From start to finish, the case is very strange. On Friday evening, a man critically injured a police officer by stabbing him in the neck with a knife outside a police station in Neukölln. Yet, just hours later, the suspect was released. How did this happen? Surveillance footage from the station on Rollbergstraße may hold the answer.
According to initial findings, a 28-year-old German man entered the Neukölln police station on Friday evening intending to file a report. The officer on duty instructed him to wait. So far, nothing out of the ordinary. But then, the first irregularity: apparently frustrated, the man left the station, retrieved a knife, and began damaging a police vehicle outside.
At this point, he was approached from behind by a police officer. The man turned his head, and the officer immediately punched him in the face. A struggle ensued, during which the man apparently cut the officer’s throat—seemingly by accident. The officer was rushed to hospital for emergency surgery, which may have saved his life.
Despite the severity of the incident, the suspect was released a few hours later. Reviewing the video evidence, investigators found no indication that the man intended to stab the officer. It also appears the officer did not follow standard self-protection procedures when approaching him.
Nonetheless, the incident marked what police chief Barbara Slowik Meisel called a “dark weekend” for Berlin police, with officers also injured at other events, including a regional league match between BFC Dynamo and Zwickau on Sunday.
