Taleb A, who drove a vehicle into the crowd on the Magdeburg Christmas market on Friday, apparently expected to die in the act. Investigators found his will in the car, according to the “Spiegel”. In it, he declared that his entire wealth would be transferred to the German Red Cross after his death, no political messages were found. The BMW he used in the attack had been rented on December 11, more than a week before the incident, and a day later, on December 12, he gave a video interview for an anti-Islamic US blog from the Maritim hotel in Magdeburg, with the hotel’s wooden paneling and ceiling lights visible in the background.
In the interview, he praised tech billionaire and Trump associate Elon Musk and US conspiracy theorist Alex Jones. He claimed that Germany was allowing Islamists from Syria to enter the country, while “destroying the lives of Saudi ex-Muslims.” He also alleged that the German police was conducting a covert operation to track down these people worldwide, similar to the Nazi era.
In a May 2024 Twitter post, A wrote that he expected to “die this year” seeking “justice” at any cost. He repeated the warning that he would die this year in private messages to other Twitter users.
On the previous Friday evening, around 7:05 pm, the attacker drove the rented BMW into the Magdeburg Christmas market, racing hundreds of meters across the crowded square. The attack killed five people and injured 200, with the perpetrator being arrested a few minutes after the incident.