News LGBTQ Police Elections

CSD Fallout: Police Filmed Suspect an Hour Before Attack

As reports point to serious police failures ahead of the CSD attack, Berlin's politicians are squabbling about everything except that.

CSD Fallout: Police Filmed Suspect an Hour Before Attack
The suspect's apartment on Bissingzeilestraße was being monitored by police. Photo: Wikimedia commons.

It is increasingly looking like Saturday's attack on the CSD parade was the result of a significant security failure on the part of Berlin's authorities.

The man suspected of carrying out the deadly rampage, Abdul Ballout, was considered enough of a risk that the LKA, Berlin's state criminal police office, installed a camera opposite his front door to track his movements — a camera that recorded him leaving his home at 20:58, roughly an hour before he carried out the attack in the Tiergarten. But the footage was only reviewed on a 24-hour delay, so nobody was watching in real time.

Perhaps predictably, the initial political reaction from many Berlin politicians has not been to call for a review of police procedure.