Today in Berlin, a car driven by a man identified only as a 29-year-old German-Armenian resident of Berlin plowed into a group of pedestrians at the Breitscheidplatz, scene of the 2016 Christmas truck attack. At this point, one person is dead, a school teacher from the state of Hesse. There are numerous injured, six critically. Most of the injured are from a Hesse school outing in which the teacher was an escort.
The driver is hospitalized, and at this point, the police do not know if he blacked out or the act was intentional. It has been reported that a letter was found in the car as well as placards with some references to Turkey.
*Update: From the reports from the German press, it is impossible that it was an accident. The driver twice drove his car off the street onto the sidewalk two times at locations 200 meters apart.
Below is from the Berliner Morgenpost. Translation by Fousesquawk.
Auto sped into crowd of people and one block further into a shop
The silver-colored Renault Clio ran into the people at the corner of Ranke and Tauenzienstrasse (Street) around 10:30 (am). The auto was then driven a block further and broke through a shop window of a Douglas store on Marburgerstrasse (Street). According to a Douglas spokeswoman, there were no injuries in the shop.
* Update: June 9.
The total number of injured is 32 with some critically. One person is dead.
At this point, police are ruling out terror and attributing the cause as psychiatric though the exact motive remains unclear. The driver is a 29-year-old man of Armenian background who was naturalized as a German in 2015. His name is given only as Gor H. Due to his Armenian origin, this does not appear to be a case of jihad. Though European authorities, especially in Germany, are quick to label the perpetrators as mentally ill, this does appear to be the case. The man was already reportedly a mental patient in some capacity. He remains in police custody.
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