The alleged perpetrator, who police say beat a train attendant to death in Rhineland‑Palatinate, was apparently already a suspect earlier that day.
According to “Der Spiegel”, federal police removed a 26‑year‑old man from a TGV arriving from France at 11:50 a.m. in Kaiserslautern after he kicked a door inside the train; train attendants had then alerted the authorities. Because the door was undamaged and the man possessed a ticket, the incident seemed to have no criminal consequence for him.
Later that same day, about 5:45 p.m., a 36‑year‑old train attendant inspected him in a regional express near Landstuhl, intending to remove him for an allegedly missing ticket. The man attacked the rail worker with punches, and the attendant later died in a hospital.
The alleged perpetrator was registered in Luxembourg. Luxembourg authorities only listed him as a “missing person” on Tuesday, so German officers had no description of him available on the day of the incident.
