Portugal: Iraqi Asylum-Seeker Stones Police Station and Stabs Officer

O Minho

Today in Braga, Portugal, a man identified by police as a 28-year-old Iraqi asylum-seeker began throwing rocks into a local police station, apparently to lure officers outside. When a supervisor attempted to stop him, the man reportedly stabbed him with a large kitchen knife. The officer, fortunately, sustained only a superficial cut. The attacker was arrested and put into a cell.  

It appears that the motive for the attack was that in January, the Iraqi had submitted an asylum application at that same police station, and that the officer who was stabbed was the same officer who had received the application. Police are also investigating whether it was the same suspect who burned three cars in Braga the day before, one of which was a police vehicle.

The below article from CM Jornal (Pt) is translated by Fousesquawk   

This article from O Minho has several pictures of the damage caused. Note that the article also mistakenly identifies the suspect as an Iranian in the text, but also as an Iraqi in the text and the headline. I am assuming that the suspect is Iraqi.

Braga attacker ambushed police station in order to kill PSP (Public Safety Police) chief

The man took out a large knife and stabbed the policeman in the left side of the stomach

By Sergio A. Vitorino, journalist, and Fatima Vilaça, journalist

Updated 12 April 2025 at 12:33

A man stoned the facility of the 1st Police Station of the PSP, as well as a police vehicle in Braga on Saturday morning, in order to lure the PSP officers outside. He stabbed a supervisory operational chief who attempted to stop the vandalism-and who, by centimeters, escaped potentially fatal wounds. The attack was reportedly due to the fact that the police officer was recognized by the attacker as the officer who, on June 21, received the asylum application from the attacker, a 28-year-old Iraqi, in that same police station. There is an investigation as to whether the same (man) was the perpetrator of a fire on Friday that destroyed three vehicles, one of which was a police vehicle.

On Saturday morning, the man gathered several rocks into a bag and began to stone the police station (breaking the glass in the waiting room and two doors), as well as a PSP vehicle (breaking the windshield and the right front window). He also threw bottles inside the station. All to draw the police outside. The chief, who was acting as operational supervisor, on seeing the stoning and, by coincidence, leaving on a break, attempted to stop him. The attacker, on recognizing him from his asylum application (which the PSP forwarded on to AIMA*and had nothing further to do with), took out a large kitchen knife hidden in his backpack and stabbed the officer in the left side of his stomach. "Fortunately, and only by a few centimeters," a police source said, the cut was superficial. The officer was hospitalized and treated.

The attacker was arrested and put into the Braga police station cell, where he also reportedly caused damage.

The day before, an unmarked vehicle belonging to the 2nd PSP Station of Braga and two others, belonging to civilians, which were in the immediate vicinity of the first, were destroyed by arson, which is being investigated by the Judicial Police. 

* AIMA Agency for Integration, Migration, and Asylum)