A 43-year-old man has been standing before the regional court since Thursday, who is said to have attacked four people in the street with a knife in the station district in January.

One of the victims, a 78 year old man, died two weeks later.

The public prosecutor considers the alleged attacker to be mentally ill.

Jan Schiefenhövel

Freelance author in the Rhein-Main-Zeitung.

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Prosecutor Miriam Haßbecker spoke of acute paranoid schizophrenia at the beginning of the trial.

They believe that the accused acted in a state of incapacity.

Therefore, she wants to get his placement in a closed psychiatric clinic for an indefinite period of time.

Because of his illness, further acts of violence are to be expected from him.

Thus, the judges do not have to decide on a prison sentence.

The suspect has been held in a mental hospital since his arrest in January.

The prosecutor accuses the Pole, Rafal O., of attempting to kill people, in some cases with insidiousness.

Indiscriminate attacks

The accused was armed with a knife when he went into the station district on the morning of January 21, as Haßbecker explained. In a delusional state, he was alleged to have been arrested and therefore carried out the attacks. First he picked a homeless person as a victim who slept on the street. The homeless man was able to fend off the first stab in the stomach with kicks, then he was injured with further stitches in the shoulder and back until he grabbed the knife blade with both hands. The attacker only let go of this victim when a passerby sprayed him with pepper spray, as the prosecutor said.

The 78-year-old man was the next to be approached.

The knife penetrated up to ten centimeters deep in the chest and stomach.

The attacked died despite treatment in the intensive care unit.

According to Haßbecker, the third victim was a man who met the accused on the street.

However, the attacked person saw the stab coming in his back, so that he was only superficially injured.

The fourth victim was a hotel guest who smoked a cigarette next to his car.

The accused inflicted a 20 centimeter long wound on his stomach.

This man would have died without first aid, said Haßbecker.