Berlin Police officer critically injured in neck stabbing

A police officer in Berlin has been critically injured by a man who stabbed him in the neck. A 28-year-old man inflicted the injury on the officer during a “physical altercation” outside a police station in the Neukölln district on Friday evening, the police announced on Saturday. The 31-year-old officer was in a “stable condition” following emergency surgery.

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The suspect was arrested but released on Saturday night, the police and public prosecutor's office jointly announced. “According to the current state of the investigation, there is no definite evidence that the suspect deliberately used a knife”, the statement said. This means that there is “no strong suspicion of attempted murder”.

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According to the police, the man had previously wanted to file a report at the police station and had been “asked to be patient”. Instead, he had left the building and damaged a police vehicle with a knife. The police officer suffered “life-threatening injuries as a result of a scuffle arising from the control situation”, the Berlin police wrote on X.

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In response to the crime, the police union (GdP) called for the "immediate procurement of new protective equipment against neck stabbing and knife attacks" for police officers. The new protective clothing had already been promised by the interior ministers, but had never reached the police service across the board, criticized GdP Federal Chairman Jochen Kopelke on Saturday.

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Kopelke spoke of a “dramatic development in knife crime in Germany”. Time and again, it is police officers "who confront armed attackers to protect bystanders and are often injured themselves", explained the GdP boss. "We need better equipment for this on duty."

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Following the incident, Alexander Throm (CDU), spokesperson for domestic policy for the CDU/CSU parliamentary group in the Bundestag, called for tougher action to be taken against attacks on the police. "Anyone who attacks the police despises our state," Throm told the Tagesspiegel newspaper. Police officers and emergency services must be "better protected, including through tougher penalties", said Throm. This had been agreed in the coalition agreement: "We will fight such acts against police officers and anti-Semitism with the utmost consistency and severity."

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