A German man was jailed for life on Tuesday and ordered to undergo psychiatric treatment for driving his car into Christmas shoppers in December 2020, killing six people, including a child.
The regional court in the southwestern city of Trier found the defendant, Bernd Weimann, 52, to be “particularly serious” for the fatal attack, in which he drove his SUV down a busy pedestrian street.
Magistrates found Weyman rammed his car erratically at passers-by before getting out of the car and being arrested.
He was found guilty of five murders and 18 attempted murders. The sixth victim died almost a year after the attack.
Wayman suffered from psychological problems and was intoxicated when he made his way through the crowd of holiday shoppers, killing the infant, her father and four others.
During the year-long trial, prosecutors argued that Weyman planned the attack with the intent to “kill or injure as many as possible.”
An examination prepared on the eve of the trial showed that he is suffering from paranoid schizophrenia. Weimann was only able to provide the police with a rough and sometimes contradictory account of the events.
Investigators ruled out any political, terrorist or religious motives at the time, and none were established during the trial.
According to the prosecution, Weyman was frustrated by personal circumstances. Before the attack, he had no permanent address and lived in an SUV.
Prosecutors said his mistreatment at the hands of government officials caused Weimann to develop a “general hatred of humanity.”
Germany has seen a spate of car attacks in recent years, the deadliest of which occurred in December 2016, when an Islamist attacker attacked a Christmas market in Berlin, killing 12 people.
