The 52-year-old man killed six people and injured dozens in December 2020 after driving an SUV at high speed on a pedestrian street in Trier.
The author of a massive outcry in a pedestrian street in the German city of Trier, which left 6 people dead and injuries varying to more than 30, was sentenced this Tuesday to life imprisonment and admission to a high-security psychiatric center by a court in the city of Rhineland-Palatinate, in the west of the country. The convicted, 52-year-old, was found guilty by the judges of six counts of murder, 18 attempted murders and 14 counts of serious injury. On December 1, 2020, the defendant entered the pedestrian zone of the historic city with his car and deliberately hit anyone who crossed his path at high speed. However, after a year of proceedings, the reasons that led the man to engage in that murderous race aboard his vehicle are unknown. The prosecutors indicated that the reasons must be sought in the mental disorders of the suspect.
The mass outcry, carried out with a heavy all-terrain vehicle, killed a nine-month-old baby, his 45-year-old father and three women, ages 73, 52 and 25. A 77-year-old man died months later from his injuries. The judges considered it proven that the already convicted man entered the pedestrian street with his car with the intention of killing as many people as possible. To the balance of deaths and serious injuries that appear in the sentence, we must add numerous minor injuries and more than 300 eyewitnesses who were traumatized by the horror scenes experienced during and after the mass outcry. Decisive for the sentence was the analysis of a forensic psychiatrist, who found that the man suffers from a delusional disorder and paranoid schizophrenia, with reduced guilt and great danger to society.
The 52-year-old feels “victim of a major state conspiracy” against him, feels persecuted, listened to and constantly observed and does not remember the moment of the events, explains the forensic expert. The defendant’s own court-appointed lawyers, in their final intervention, had requested that their client be admitted to a high-security psychiatric center. With their sentences, the judges complied with the request for punishment from the prosecutors, but also from the private lawyers of the victims and their families. The trial, which began on August 19, 2021, took place over 40 sessions, during which dozens of witnesses recounted their traumatic experiences. Many agreed that the multiple felony perpetrator deliberately aimed his vehicle at several of his victims. “Like he was aiming a gun before firing,” one of the witnesses explained.
Source: La Verdad
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