Federal prosecutors have filed charges against the suspect in the Essen knife attacks, accusing him of attempted murder. Seven months after the stabbing incidents in Essen, the Karlsruhe-based authority announced the indictment on Monday.
According to prosecutors, 17-year-old Kosovar Erjon S. attacked his teacher and a stranger with Islamist motivations in early September. Both victims were injured but survived. He is also accused of attacking a primary school caretaker whom he knew personally. This victim was also injured.
According to federal prosecutors, the suspect adhered to an Islamist-jihadist ideology. He allegedly wanted to participate in an Islamist-motivated war against perceived non-believers. He selected the caretaker and the teacher as his victims and additionally intended to kill as many people of Jewish faith as possible.
On the early morning of September 5, 2025, S. allegedly armed himself with a long knife and went to a primary school in Essen. Federal prosecutors described how he punched the caretaker with his fist and also attacked the man with pepper spray. The caretaker defended himself, preventing S. from using the knife.
Shortly afterward, he went to his vocational school and attacked his teacher there. He stabbed her several times deliberately in the upper body. He then searched for additional victims and went twice to the Old Synagogue in Essen. According to authorities, he encountered no one there whom he considered a suitable victim of Jewish faith. Instead, he stabbed a stranger in the back on the open street.
To evade arrest and provoke his so-called martyrdom, S. ultimately ran toward police officers with his knife held out, as federal prosecutors explained. They opened fire, and S. was injured in the face and arrested. He remains in pre-trial detention.
The Düsseldorf Higher Regional Court will now decide on the admission of charges against him for attempted murder in three cases, bodily harm, dangerous bodily harm, resistance against law enforcement officers, and coercion.
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