Suspect in Vehicle Attack on Germany's LGBTQ Festival Shot Dead the Next Day

[Financial News] An Islamic extremist terror suspect who attacked an LGBTQ festival in Berlin, Germany, on the 25th local time, leaving 30 people dead or injured, was shot dead one day after the crime.
According to BBC and other European media outlets, Berlin police said in a statement on the 26th that Abdul Balut, 21, died around 6 p.m. after being shot by a special police unit in Spandau, northwestern Berlin. Police said the suspect charged at officers with a knife during an arrest operation, prompting them to open fire. Firefighters attempted resuscitation, but he died at the scene.
The suspect is accused of driving a white Citroën van into Tiergarten Park in central Berlin around 10 p.m. on the 25th, killing one person and injuring 29 others. After the vehicle struck a wooden pole and came to a stop, he got out and fled, continuing to attack passersby with a bladed weapon believed to be a machete.
The attack took place near the site of the Christopher Street Day (CSD) parade, an LGBTQ festival. At the time, a closing concert for the festival was under way in front of Brandenburg Gate, about 500 meters away. Police arrested one Iranian man who had been in the vehicle with him in the early hours of the 26th. It was not confirmed which of the two was driving.
Authorities classified the incident as a terrorist attack by an Islamic extremist. Balut, a Lebanese-German national, was born in Germany, and his mother became a naturalized German citizen in 2002, three years before he was born. Last year, Balut was caught trying to travel to Syria to join the Islamic State (IS). He was later jailed for three months in Lebanon, where he had stopped over, on charges of inciting religious conflict, and was released in October last year. He was arrested again at the airport in November while returning to Berlin.
In May, the Berlin Tiergarten District Court sentenced Balut to one year and 10 months in prison, suspended, for preparing violent acts that threatened national security. He was also ordered to undergo 26 counseling sessions aimed at eliminating and preventing extremism before being released.
Local security authorities had classified him as a violent extremist risk and kept him under surveillance, including wiretapping. He posted IS propaganda on social media in 2004, and after his release, he uploaded images of firearms, which led to a search of his home on the 3rd of this month.


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