2021 Würzburg stabbing

2021 Würzburg stabbing
The Woolworth store in Würzburg before 2011
Location	Barbarossaplatz Würzburg, Bavaria, Germany
Date	25 June 2021 c. 17:00 (CEST)
Target	Shoppers and pedestrians
Attack type	Mass stabbing
Weapons	Kitchen knife
Deaths	3
Injured	10 (including the perpetrator)
Perpetrator	Abdirahman Jibril Ali

On 25 June 2021, a mass stabbing took place in Würzburg, Bavaria, Germany. Abdirahman Jibril Ali, a homeless Somali refugee, killed three women and wounded seven others in and around a Woolworth store. Minutes later, the police shot the suspect in his leg and arrested him.^[1][2]

Jibril Ali had a history of several violent altercations since his 2015 arrival as an asylum seeker in Germany and a one day involuntary commitment into a psychiatric hospital a month before the attack. Islamist motives were initially suspected; later investigation assigned cause to the perpertrator's paranoid schizophrenia.

On 25 June 2021, at about 17:00 local time, a barefoot man entered a Woolworth shop in Barbarossaplatz in central Altstadt borough of Würzburg. He asked a 39-year-old shop assistant in which part of the store the knives were displayed. He grabbed a knife with a 33-cm blade from the kitchen section, wounding the shop assistant before repeatedly slashing at a 27-year-old woman standing nearby. Afterwards, he killed a woman in the dress section, then attacked a mother-daughter pair in the women's underwear department. The mother and a customer who attempted to intervene were killed, while the 11-year-old child survived with several stab wounds.^[3][4]

The attacker then exited the store and began attacking pedestrians on the street, first stabbing and critically injuring a 16-year-old boy, who was unaware of the attack due to wearing headphones and a hoodie. Outside a bank, the attacker injured a man and two women.^[5] An Iranian Kurdish asylum seeker,^[6] a German soldier and a waiter confronted him defending themselves with objects, some of which were thrown at the attacker, keeping him cornered in a closed-off alley in Oberthürstraße.^[7][8] Arriving police officers moved in to arrest the attacker, who then lunged at them. One officer fired a single gunshot, wounding the attacker in the thigh, allowing for his arrest.^[1] The stabbing lasted four minutes.^[9]

Three people, all women, were killed and died at the scene inside the shop. 24-year-old Steffi W. was killed while buying a dress at the shop for her friend's wedding. 49-year-old Christiane H., a Brazilian-German citizen who had moved to the country in early 2021, died shielding her daughter. 82-year-old Johanna H. was killed when she tried to help the mother and child.^[10][11]

Initially, seven injured were counted, three of whom were injured inside the store. By the time of the trial in 2022, the number of injured was updated to nine. Six of them had life-threatening wounds while the other three had light injuries.^[12] Two victims, an adult and a teenager, were male while the rest, four women, a teenager, and a pre-teen, were female.^[5][13] One of those counted as injured, the attacked police officer, did not have any physical wounds.^[14] All victims were stabbed in the head, neck and/or upper torso.^[15]

The suspect was identified as Abdirahman Jibril Ali^[16] (Somali: Cabdiraxmaan Jibriil Cali; Arabic: عبد الرحمن جبريل علي).^[17] Born in Mogadishu, he arrived in Italy as an asylum seeker in early 2015 and moved to Germany in May 2015.^[7] He was generally reported to be 24 years old with the birth year 1997.^[7][8] In custody and at his later trial, Jibril Ali stated that he was born in December 1989, making him 31 years old at the time of the attack.^[14][18]

He lived in Saxony as a regular resident from 2015 until 2019.^[19] His first violent altercation in Germany was in 2015, when he wounded a migrant during a fight. He was not, however, charged with a crime.^[20]

In August 2018, Jibril Ali and an Afghan friend reported that they were attacked by neo-Nazis in Chemnitz. The men claimed that a group of masked individuals beat and slashed at them and that they might have been associated with a right-wing protest that took place at the crime scene earlier that day. Jibril Ali had injuries consistent with the described assault, but no suspects were ever arrested.^[21][22]

In 2019, he had drawn the attention of authorities due to violent altercations, and had been forced into a psychiatric hospital a month before the attack, after he stopped a random car in the street and sat in it.^[19] However, he was discharged a day later as no mental illness was diagnosed.^[23] In September 2019, he was moved to a homeless shelter in Würzburg.^[19] In January 2021, he threatened a shelter staff member and other asylum seekers with a knife.^[20]

Months prior, another Somali asylum seeker denounced Jibril Ali to the German authorities, saying that Jibril Ali had told him in private conversation that he was "an al-Shabaab member, who killed civilians, journalist and police officers in Somalia" between 2008 and 2009.^[7][18] After this claim, an investigation was opened, but it could not confirm the allegation.^[17] Jibril Ali had previously told an imam that he worked for the secret service of Russia and the United States.^[7]

There is no evidence of an accomplice, and the perpetrator appears to have operated alone.^[2]

As of 29 June 2021, the motive for the attack had not been officially confirmed,^[17] however police suspected Islamic extremism.^[24][8] The Woolworth's store detective, some police officers and a number of witnesses reported hearing the attacker shout ʾAllāhu ʾakbar at least twice^[14] while committing the attack, and after the arrest he said that the attack was 'his jihad'.^[2]

A police spokesman said that, while the attacker had a criminal record, none of his previous offences were related to terrorism.^[1] Investigators who checked his room for more evidence had not found any Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant's material or religious extremist slogans.^[25]

As of 29 June 2021, police were also investigating if his release from psychiatric care was premature; however the suspect had not been diagnosed with a mental disorder.^[17] Police investigation discounted an Islamist motive as unsubstantiated. By October 2021, a psychiatric evaluation stated that the perpetrator may not be criminally responsible due to delusions;^[26] it was eventually concluded that Jibril Ali had previously undiagnosed paranoid schizophrenia and that the condition affected his actions in the attack.^[27][28]

On 22 April 2022, Jibril Ali was charged with three counts of murder, eleven counts of attempted murder and dangerous bodily harm by Landgericht Würzburg.^[14] The defence said Jibril Ali was going through a stage of psychosis and was convinced to perform the stabbing through auditory hallucination.^[29][4] The prosecution argued that while Jibril Ali did not have terrorist motives, he had acted out of resentment against the German state for perceived mistreatment. The trial was set to run until September 2022.^[14][15] In July 2022, the trial ended prematurely without verdict, as the court decided that Jibril Ali would be placed in a psychiatric institution for an indefinite amount of time.^[27][28] In May 2025, it was announced that Jibril Ali would be deported back to Somalia, in part due to the severity of his crimes and his refusal to participate in therapy.^[30]

Memorial services were held in Würzburg. The citizens who attempted to disarm the attacker were celebrated in the press as heroes. 41-year-old Chia Rabiei, a Christian Kurd from Mahabad who helped fend off the attacker by beating him with a backpack,^[31] received several commendations, including a XY-Award and a Bavarian Rescue Medal.^[32] There were also calls to award Rabiei German citizenship,^[6] but this did not occur. In spring 2023, he was slated for deportation to Iran. Rabiei subsequently won an appeal to stay in Germany based on concerns over persecution by the Iranian government.^[32]

• Würzburg train attack
• List of mass stabbings in Germany