German police probe fatal knife attack on schoolgirl

From the German edition of The Local

Police were on Tuesday investigating a motive behind the fatal stabbing of a 14-year-old girl on her way to school in Baden-Württemberg in a case that made national headlines.

According to police, a 27-year-old man attacked two girls on the street with a knife as they walked to school Monday morning in the small town of Illerkirchberg near Ulm.

The victim, a German girl with a Turkish family background, was revived at the scene but later died in hospital, police said. A 13-year-old girl was also hurt in the incident but did not suffer life-threatening injuries.

Police apprehended the suspect at “nearby asylum seekers’ accommodation”, they said.

“I mourn the girl who was killed and sincerely hope that the injured girl will recover,” Federal Interior Minister Nancy Faeser posted on Twitter Monday. “The police are urgently investigating the background” of the attack, she said.

The man, who is accused of attacking the teens as they headed to school in the southwestern town of Illerkirchberg, declined to speak when he appeared before a judge at the hospital where he was treated for injuries following his arrest shortly after Monday’s attack. A judge has ordered that the defendant be detained in custody.  He was transferred to a prison hospital, prosecutors said.

Investigators have so far found “no information whatsoever pointing to a political or religious motivation for this crime,” said Thomas Strobl, the interior minister for Baden-Wuerttemberg state.

Two other men detained by police Monday have been released, prosecutors said.

The crime has taken on a political dimension because the suspect is an asylum seeker from Eritrea. Several politicians from Germany’s far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD) used the crime to question the country’s immigration policies.  In the statement, a police spokesperson asked people “not to harbour general suspicions against strangers, or asylum seekers in general, or to encourage or support such suspicions.”

Yes – light some candles, lay some flowers, sing Don’t Look Back in Anger, or Kumbaya. Make sure her family and friends keep their mouths shut for the good of diversity.   That will stop the murders. It’s never work before but maybe this time . . .