A German police officer shot and killed an Islamic extremist in Berlin after he attacked a fellow officer and threatened street-goers with a knife in Berlin.
The Associated Press reported that authorities were summoned to an area of western Berlin amid reports that a man was waving a knife in the street. The individual then used the knife to injure a female police officer before another officer shot and killed him.
The female officer is currently stable but remains in intensive care.
Anonymous German security officials identified the 41-year-old man as Rafik Mohamad Yousef, who seven years ago was convicted of membership to a terror group linked with al Qaeda.
German officials arrested the Iraqi national in December 2004 for suspected involvement in a plot by the group Ansar al-Islam to assassinate former Iraqi Prime Minister Ayad Allawi when he came to Berlin.
While German officials wanted to deport him back to Iraq in 2013 following his release, they couldn’t because he could have faced the death penalty for his involvement in the attempted attack.
The interior minister for the state of Berlin Frank Henkel said in a statement Thursday that "there are indications that this wasn’t a planned act." However, he said that "a religious motif can’t be excluded" because of Yousef’s background.