BERLIN (AP) — Berlin police said they detained a man Tuesday who attacked and injured two people in the city's Charlottenburg neighborhood, further jolting Germany days after a deadly Christmas market attack elsewhere in the country.
Police said the attacker was a Syrian citizen with residency in Sweden.
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A Police officer stands guard in front of a Rewe Market after a knife attack, in Berlin, Germany, Tuesday, Dec. 31, 2024. (AP Photo/Ebrahim Noroozi)
Police officers stand guard in front of a Rewe Market after a knife attack, in Berlin, Germany, Tuesday, Dec. 31, 2024. (AP Photo/Ebrahim Noroozi)
Police officers stand guard in front of a Rewe Market after a knife attack, in Berlin, Germany, Tuesday, Dec. 31, 2024. (AP Photo/Ebrahim Noroozi)
Police officers stand guard in front of a Rewe Market after a knife attack, in Berlin, Germany, Tuesday, Dec. 31, 2024. (AP Photo/Ebrahim Noroozi)
Police officers stand guard in front of a Rewe Market after a knife attack, in Berlin, Germany, Tuesday, Dec. 31, 2024. (AP Photo/Ebrahim Noroozi)
Police officers stand guard in front of a Rewe Market after a knife attack, in Berlin, Germany, Tuesday, Dec. 31, 2024. (AP Photo/Ebrahim Noroozi)
Police officers stand at a cordoned-off area in front of a supermarket in Berlin-Charlottenburg after an incident, in Berlin, Tuesday, Dec. 31, 2024. (Bernd von Jutrczenka/dpa via AP)
“Initial findings indicate that the suspect may have signs of mental illness and that there is not indication for a terrorist motivation,” police spokeswoman Jane Berndt told The Associated Press, adding that the investigation is still ongoing.
A police statement called it an “attempted murder.” It said the man attacked two men in a supermarket and on a sidewalk in front of a nearby hotel shortly before noon, allegedly stabbing them with a knife he had stolen from the supermarket.
Both were taken to a hospital, and police said one was released after outpatient treatment.
Berlin media outlets earlier reported that the man appeared to be randomly attacking. They reported that several passersby pounced on the attacker and overpowered him until police arrived.
Charlottenburg is a normally quiet district of the German capital.
Germany is still reeling from the deadly Christmas market attack this month in which five people were killed and more than 200 were injured in the eastern city of Magdeburg. A Saudi doctor was arrested on murder charges.
In a separate incident Tuesday in southwestern Germany, police shot and killed a man after he stole an excavator in the town of Grünsfeld, drove it into the front of a hardware store and slightly injured three officers who chased him, German news agency dpa reported. The attacker was identified as a 38-year-old German.
A Police officer stands guard in front of a Rewe Market after a knife attack, in Berlin, Germany, Tuesday, Dec. 31, 2024. (AP Photo/Ebrahim Noroozi)
Police officers stand guard in front of a Rewe Market after a knife attack, in Berlin, Germany, Tuesday, Dec. 31, 2024. (AP Photo/Ebrahim Noroozi)
Police officers stand guard in front of a Rewe Market after a knife attack, in Berlin, Germany, Tuesday, Dec. 31, 2024. (AP Photo/Ebrahim Noroozi)
Police officers stand guard in front of a Rewe Market after a knife attack, in Berlin, Germany, Tuesday, Dec. 31, 2024. (AP Photo/Ebrahim Noroozi)
Police officers stand guard in front of a Rewe Market after a knife attack, in Berlin, Germany, Tuesday, Dec. 31, 2024. (AP Photo/Ebrahim Noroozi)
Police officers stand guard in front of a Rewe Market after a knife attack, in Berlin, Germany, Tuesday, Dec. 31, 2024. (AP Photo/Ebrahim Noroozi)
Police officers stand at a cordoned-off area in front of a supermarket in Berlin-Charlottenburg after an incident, in Berlin, Tuesday, Dec. 31, 2024. (Bernd von Jutrczenka/dpa via AP)
An Army soldier who died in an explosion of a Tesla Cybertruck at the Trump hote l in Las Vegas left a note saying it was stunt to serve as “wakeup call” for the country’s ills, investigators said Friday.
Matthew Livelsberger, a 37-year-old Green Beret from Colorado Springs, Colorado, also wrote in the note that he needed to “cleanse my mind” of the lives lost of people he knew and “the burden of the lives I took.”
Livelsberger apparently harbored no ill will toward President-elect Donald Trump, Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department officials said.
“Although this incident is more public and more sensational than usual, it ultimately appears to be a tragic case of suicide involving a heavily decorated combat veteran who was struggling with PTSD and other issues,” FBI Special Agent In Charge Spencer Evans said at a news conference.
The explosion caused minor injuries to seven people but virtually no damage to the hotel. Authorities said Friday that Livelsberger acted alone.
“This was not a terrorist attack, it was a wakeup call. Americans only pay attention to spectacles and violence. What better way to get my point across than a stunt with fireworks and explosives,” Livelsberger wrote in a letter found by authorities who released only excerpts of it.
Investigators identified the Tesla driver — who was burned beyond recognition — as Livelsberger by a tattoo and by comparing DNA from relatives. The cause of death was a self-inflicted gunshot to the head, according to coroners officials.
Pentagon officials have declined to say whether Livelsberger may have been suffering from mental health issues but say they have turned over his medical records to police.
Authorities excerpted the messages from two letters Livelsberger wrote using a cellphone note application, Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department Assistant Sheriff Dori Koren said.
The letters covered a range of topics including political grievances, domestic issues and societal issues, Koren said.
Tesla engineers, meanwhile, helped extract data from the Cybertruck for investigators, including Livelsberger’s path between charging stations from Colorado through New Mexico and Arizona and on to Las Vegas, Koren said.
“We still have a large volume of data to go through,” Koren said. “There’s thousands if not millions of videos and photos and documents and web history and all of those things that need to be analyzed.”
The new details came as investigators sought to determine Livelsberger’s motive, including whether he sought to make a political point with the Tesla and the hotel bearing the president-elect’s name.
Tesla CEO Elon Musk has recently become a member of Trump’s inner circle. Neither Trump nor Musk was in Las Vegas early Wednesday, the day of the explosion. Both had attended Trump’s New Year’s Eve party at his South Florida estate.
Musk spent an estimated $250 million during the presidential campaign to support Trump, who has named Musk, the world’s richest man, to co-lead a new effort to find ways to cut the government’s size and spending.
Investigators suspect Livelsberger may have been planning a more damaging attack but the steel-sided vehicle absorbed much of the force from the crudely built explosive.
Investigators said previously that Livelsberger shot himself inside the Tesla Cybertruck packed with fireworks just before it exploded outside Trump International Hotel in Las Vegas on New Year's Day.
“It’s not lost on us that it’s in front of the Trump building, that it’s a Tesla vehicle, but we don’t have information at this point that definitively tells us or suggests it was because of this particular ideology,” Spencer Evans, the Las Vegas FBI’s special agent in charge, said Thursday.
Asked Friday about whether Livelsberger had been struggling with any mental health issues that may have prompted his suicide, Pentagon spokeswoman Sabrina Singh told reporters that “the department has turned over all medical records to local law enforcement.”
A law enforcement official said investigators learned through interviews that he may have gotten into a fight with his wife about relationship issues shortly before he rented the Tesla in Colorado on Saturday and bought the guns. The official spoke on the condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to discuss the ongoing investigation.
Among the charred items found inside the truck were a handgun at Livelsberger’s feet, another firearm, fireworks, a passport, a military ID, credit cards, an iPhone and a smartwatch, Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Sheriff Kevin McMahill said. Authorities said both guns were purchased legally.
Livelsberger served in the Green Berets, highly trained special forces who work to counter terrorism abroad and train partners. He had served in the Army since 2006, rising through the ranks with a long career of overseas assignments, deploying twice to Afghanistan and serving in Ukraine, Tajikistan, Georgia and Congo, the Army said. He had recently returned from an overseas assignment in Germany and was on approved leave when he died, according to a U.S. official.
He was awarded a total of five Bronze Stars, including one with a valor device for courage under fire, a combat infantry badge and an Army Commendation Medal with valor.
Authorities searched a townhouse in Livelsberger's hometown of Colorado Springs Thursday as part of the investigation. Neighbors said the man who lived there had a wife and a baby.
Cindy Helwig, who lives diagonally across a narrow street separating the homes, said she last saw the man she knew as Matthew about two weeks ago when he asked her if he could borrow a tool he needed to fix an SUV he was working on.
“He was a normal guy,” said Helwig, who said she last saw the wife and baby earlier this week.
The explosion of the truck, packed with firework mortars and camp fuel canisters, came hours after 42-year-old Shamsud-Din Bahar Jabbar rammed a truck into a crowd in New Orleans’ famed French Quarter early on New Year’s Day, killing at least 14 people before being shot to death by police. The FBI says they believe Jabbar acted alone and that it is being investigated as a terrorist attack.
Copp, Richer and Long reported from Washington. Contributing were Associated Press journalists Rio Yamat, Ken Ritter and Ty ONeil in Las Vegas; Colleen Slevin in Colorado Springs, Colorado; Mead Gruver in Cheyenne, Wyoming, and Christopher Weber in Los Angeles.
Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department Assistant Sheriff Dori Koren speaks during a press conference regarding developments of a New Year's Eve truck explosion Friday, Jan. 3, 2025 in Las Vegas. (AP Photo/Ty ONeil)
Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department Sheriff Kevin McMahill speaks during a press conference regarding developments of a New Year's Eve truck explosion Friday, Jan. 3, 2025 in Las Vegas. (AP Photo/Rio Yamat)
A car drives out of Trump International Hotel in Las Vegas Thursday, Jan. 2, 2025, in Las Vegas. (AP Photo/Ian Maule)
Investigators search a townhouse in northeastern Colorado Springs, Colo., Thursday, Jan. 2, 2025, as the investigation connected to the explosion of a Tesla Cybertruck outside President-elect Donald Trump's Las Vegas hotel continues. (Parker Seibold /The Gazette via AP)
Investigators search the garbage outside of a townhouse in northeastern Colorado Springs, Colo., Thursday, Jan. 2, 2025, as the investigation connected to the explosion of a Tesla Cybertruck outside President-elect Donald Trump's Las Vegas hotel continues. (Parker Seibold /The Gazette via AP)
This undated photo, provided by the Las Vegas Police Department shows a passport belonging to Matthew Livelsberger, found inside a Tesla Cybertruck involved in an explosion outside the Trump Hotel in Las Vegas. (Las Vegas Police Department via AP)
A Tesla Cybertruck pulls into Trump International Hotel in Las Vegas Thursday, Jan. 2, 2025, in Las Vegas. (AP Photo/Ian Maule)
This undated photo, provided by the Las Vegas Police Department shows items found inside a Tesla Cybertruck involved in an explosion outside the Trump Hotel in Las Vegas. (Las Vegas Police Department via AP)
This undated photo, provided by the Las Vegas Police Department shows a weapon found inside a Tesla Cybertruck involved in an explosion outside the Trump Hotel in Las Vegas. (Las Vegas Police Department via AP)
This undated photo, provided by the Las Vegas Police Department shows the Tesla Cybertruck involved in an explosion outside the Trump Hotel in Las Vegas. (Las Vegas Police Department via AP)
This undated photo, provided by the Las Vegas Police Department shows an ID belonging to Matthew Livelsberger, found inside a Tesla Cybertruck involved in an explosion outside the Trump Hotel in Las Vegas. (Las Vegas Police Department via AP)
