Germany: Mother of nine-year-old boy killed in Christmas market attack to pay tribute

We will close this blog now.  

Check back for today’s updates, or you can learn more about this story in our article here.  

As we previously reported, a GoFundMe page was created to collect donations for the family of nine-year-old victim Andre Gleissner.  

The page, created through a circle of family and friends, was first closed to donations after almost €50,000 was raised.  

But the organiser has said in a new update that they have reopened the page for donations after receiving a flood of requests from the public. 

They said Andre’s family is planning to pass on a large part of the donations to the other victims who died or were injured in the attack. 

More than 70,000 euros have already been raised.  

After the massacre at the Christmas market in Magdeburg, we now wonder if something has been forgotten.

Could the man accused of killing five and injuring more than 200 others have been stopped?

The questions come after it was revealed Taleb A, as he’s being called by German media, had been flagged to authorities before.

Read what our Europe correspondent Siobhan Robbins says below. . .

Heavily armed police officers are continuing to patrol the scene of Friday’s attack. 

A cordon remains around the site as investigations continue. 

Two days after the fatal attack, remains of rubble are found scattered around the site in Magdeburg, 

Police are monitoring the Christmas market, where a car plowed into a crowd celebrating the Christmas holidays on Friday night.  

A damaged bar table still lies in front of the concrete barricades, next to a torn wrapper from a syringe and a fan.  

Unused pressure bandages brought by paramedics sit on top of a rubbish bag. 

Some belongings were left behind by market visitors, including a single black child’s glove and a beige hiking shoe.

A bloody handkerchief is thrown to the ground.  

A German investigative journalist has said there were “quite a few warnings” about suspect Taleb A before he allegedly killed five people in this week’s attack. 

Tim Roehn, head of investigations at Welt, told Sky News the suspect was “not an unknown guy” and “underwent this radicalisation in plain sight”. 

He said the alleged attacker had “gained some popularity as a critic of Islam” and an opponent of the regime in Saudi Arabia, and had given interviews to mainstream media.  

“Among all those statements, there are repeated messages that Germany would pay an enormous price because he and other secular Arabs were betrayed, in his own words,” Roehn said.  

“He talked about maybe dying this year, he talked about taking revenge.

“It’s shocking to see what this user said publicly before this attack happened. ” 

Mr Roehn said his team also discovered a “strange email” that was meant for the police in Berlin warning about Taleb A. 

The user who sent the email was from Saudi Arabia and had warned the suspect that he posed an “imminent danger,” the journalist said.  

They had provided the police with their phone number and address, however, the email did not reach the police in Berlin, the German capital, but was mistakenly sent to a small town called Berlin, New Jersey Array in the United States.  

It’s unclear whether the email was forwarded to German authorities or not.

Sky News has not noticed the email and cannot independently determine the main details about it.  

Mr Roehn said German federal police had been looking into Taleb A a few months ago and had considered approaching him. 

However, they later decided he was not a threat and “left him alone”. 

Two firefighters paid tribute to André Gleissner, the nine-year-old killed in the attack.  

The Schöppenstedt fireplace brigade reported that Andre is a member of the Warle children’s fireplace brigade.  

It said the nine-year-old “left us much too soon”. 

“Our minds are with Andrés’ loved ones, who we also want to help in this difficult time,” he said, sharing a call for donations.  

The young firefighters of Lower Saxony also paid tribute to André saying: “Our deepest condolences go out to his family, his friends and all his loved ones.

“We stand by them in these difficult times and express our deepest sympathy. “

A German official said police had already had contact with the suspect accused of attacking a crowd at a Christmas market and killing people.  

Christian Pegel, Mecklenburg-Vorpommern’s interior minister, said the government needed actionable data on the suspect, identified in German media as Taleb A.  

The 50-year-old man, whose last trip is detained under German law, stayed in Mecklenburg-Vorpommern between 2011 and January 2016.  

Mr Pegel said this was likely part of his training to qualify as a specialised doctor. 

The official then detailed two incidents where the suspect had contact with police. 

Suspect “has made reference to the Boston Marathon bombing”

In April 2023, Taleb A was charged with “disturbing public order by threatening to commit criminal acts”.  

Pegel said it was probably “in the context of a dispute with the Chamber of Physicians” but that the suspect had “threatened to do anything that might attract foreign attention” and referred to the Boston Marathon bombing.  

Three other people died in the 2013 attack when two pressure cooker bombs exploded at the marathon finish line.  

An arrest warrant was issued to search Taleb A. ‘s apartment, but “no evidence of any kind involving actual arrangements to commit such an act nor any evidence of Islamist tendencies was discovered. ” 

The doctor said he would do whatever “people do for a long time. “

In an incident the following year, the suspect contacted the Stralsund public government to request monetary assistance to cover his living expenses.  

Mr Pegel said: “The information that we have is that while trying to obtain this funding, in seeking to obtain support for his request, he said he would carry out actions that would attract international attention and that people would long remember.” 

A radicalisation review discussion – which is used when police believe someone may be a potential threat – was then held with the suspect. 

Then you said the government would watch you, Mr. Pegel.  

A Saudi doctor reportedly drove his car to a busy Christmas market in the German city of Magdeburg on Friday night.  

Four women and a nine-year-old child were killed and two hundred others were injured.  

Here’s what we know about what happened.  

How did it happen?

Shortly after 7pm, a dark-coloured BMW hire car barrelled into crowds gathered at the Magdeburg Christmas market. 

Witnesses said they saw the car racing towards other people near the town hall, zigzagging for about 400 metres.  

Thi Linh Chi Nguyen, who works at a salon near the market, said she was talking on the phone during a break when she heard a loud bang that she initially thought was fireworks.  

Then he saw a car driving through the market at full speed.  

People screamed and a child was thrown into the air through the vehicle, he said.

The 34-year-old recalls seeing the car leave the market, turn right onto Ernst-Reuter-Allee and then stop at a tram stop, where the suspect was arrested.

Who are the victims? 

Police confirmed the victims were four women, ages 45, 52, 67 and 75, and a nine-year-old boy named Andre Gleissner.

Another 200 people were injured, adding 41 who are believed to be in serious condition.  

They are being treated in multiple hospitals in Magdeburg. 

Who is the suspect?

Several German media outlets identified the suspect as 50-year-old Taleb A, revealing his surname, in accordance with German privacy laws.

He said he is a doctor specializing in psychiatry and psychotherapy and has lived in Germany since 2006.  

The suspect, originally from Saudi Arabia, is under investigation on suspicion of murder, attempted murder and bodily harm.

Social media posts shared through the suspect describe him as a former Muslim.  

He has anti-Muslim views and has been highly critical of the German authorities, expressing support for the anti-immigrant Alternative for Germany (AfD) party.  

People have come out to pay their respects to the five killed in this week’s attack in Magdeburg. 

Among those who paid tribute, Constanze Schroete said she was “deeply shocked. ” 

“It costs me dearly. I’m horrified that something like this could happen,” he said.  

Schroete said it “makes no sense” how the attack could have been carried out despite the arrival of bollards and security measures.  

Another mourner, Michael Klippel, said: “I think it’s bad. Our daughter sent me this message on Friday night and I thought she was there too.  

“I was really shocked. I was exhausted. I was really shattered. This is incomprehensible. It’s incomprehensible.” 

Leave a Comment

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *