‘Bullet for every cop’: 21yo Syrian in Germany vowed revenge over seized driver’s license
A 21-year-old Syrian went on a violent rampage at a German police station after being stripped of his driver’s license, promising to fire “a bullet in the head of every cop” and to hunt down the officer who seized his documents, local media reports citing police.
The incident took place over the weekend in the state of Sachsen-Anhalt, but has only gained wider attention in the past few days, with a number of local officials demanding the police provide a more detailed statement.
“Lock me up, I have nothing to lose! I will hunt down every single cop and fire a bullet in their heads,” the Syrian man, whose name was not released, yelled after he - together with several members of his family - arrived at the police station in Naumburg in an effort to retrieve his driver’s license, Mitteldeutsche Zeitung reported, quoting a police report.
“I will turn your life into hell. I will just be a cop-killer,” he shouted.
The young man and his relatives staged a violent rampage at the station, damaging property and behaving in an offensive manner. The man particularly targeted his ire at the policeman who took his driver’s permit.
“I will destroy his life. I know exactly where he lives,” he said, giving details of what he would do to the officer’s wife and daughter.
Before the situation at the police office, the man had damaged a police car after his license was revoked.
The man’s family is known to police in Naumburg and has been described as “brutal” and “intimidating” by Sachsen-Anhalt Interior Minister Holger Stahlknecht, according to Mitteldeutsche Zeitung.
“On Monday evening in Naumburg, I took the opportunity to talk with the Chief Police Officer Schwan about the incidents,” Stahlknecht said. “The Southern Police Office held a talk with the city and the county. Any criminal offense is pursued on the basis of the principle of legality,” he said.
The group was not detained immediately at the police station since there were “no grounds for prosecution,” police spokesman Klaus Wiechmann said, citing Clause 112 of the German Criminal Code.
There was no chance of getting an arrest warrant from a judge, his colleague Hans-Jurgen Neufang said. "I didn’t need to bother him. It would have only worked for the waste paper basket," he said.
However, considering the man’s family history, police said the threats had been taken “seriously.” An investigation into the man’s words, damage to property and breach of public peace was launched later, but an arrest warrant has not yet been issued.
Some of the man’s five brothers are being monitored by the police while one of them was sentenced to five years in prison by the District Court in the city of Halle for a drug-related crime.
The 21-year-old Syrian has a residence permit that expires in November, while his asylum application has been rejected, police reports say, quoted by German Focus.
The man apologized for his behavior later in the week, law enforcement said. However, this is apparently not the first time he has acted in this pattern, described as “Snap out, then apologize” by officers who say this will not influence the investigation.
“I want to know what actually happened there and how the criminal activity is stopped,” Rudiger Erben, spokesperson for Germany’s Social Democratic Party (SPD), said, according to Focus.
“The state must never capitulate to people who disregard our legal order, whether they come from Germany or from Syria,” he added.
