The Somali migrant who went on a stabbing rampage in Würzburg in June, killing three women, is at least eight years older than he claimed and may have had even participated in killing civilians alongside the terrorist group al-Shabaab in his home country.
The migrant had initially claimed to have been born in 1997 when he entered Germany in 2015, making him 24 years old.
But the Munich Public Prosecutor’s Office has now stated that it believes he is at least 32 years old after the Somali national admitted during a medical examination in mid-July to being born in 1989, according to a report from the broadcaster Bayerischer Rundfunk.
A spokesman for the Munich prosecutors said the new information did not have any bearing on the multiple murders in Würzburg, but Bayerischer Rundfunk notes that the Federal Prosecutor General in Karlsruhe had also looked into the case as the Somali may have had terrorist ties.
Between 2008 and 2009, the Somali is suspected of taking part in the killing of civilians, journalists, and police officers on behalf of al-Shabaab.
But no investigation had been launched due to a lack of evidence, and only until July was the migrant considered a minor during the time of the suspected murders committed for the terror group.
The Munich Public Prosecutor’s Office stated that it had submitted the new information regarding the migrant’s actual age to the federal prosecutor on July 26th, which would have made the man an adult during the time he is alleged to have helped murder civilians, but no proceedings were initiated.
June’s attack saw the Somali national go on a knife rampage in the Barbarossaplatz of Würzburg, killing three people and injuring six others before he was eventually shot in the leg by police.
Later reports noted that the Somali did not have a criminal record in Germany but had been sent to a psychiatric hospital. He had reportedly brandished a knife at the shelter where he was living before the attack after an argument with residents and staff.
Since the mass attack in June, there have been several other murders in western Europe involving Somali nationals as suspects.
In Italy, a Somali went on a knife attack rampage in Rimini, stabbing four women and cutting the throat of a six-year-old, while another Somali was accused of double homicide in Vienna last week.