19-year-old killed in park – high juvenile sentences imposed
After the deadly knife attack against a 19-year-old, two young men have been found guilty of murder. On Friday, the Berlin regional court imposed a youth sentence of nine years on a 21-year-old, and a 17-year-old is to be imprisoned for eight years. The initiator of the act was the older defendant, said the presiding judge. “He wanted to use violence.” The 17-year-old participated with “unrestrained willingness to use violence”. Aggression was ruled out by the 19-year-old, who was angry as a visitor from Saxony shortly before the crime.
According to the court, the 21-year-old engineered the attack on the 19-year-old, whom he had met a few hours before the crime in May 2021. After the young men had drunk alcohol with other companions in a green area in the Zehlendorf district, the 21-year-old called the 17-year-old and said he needed backup. The younger defendant drove into the park armed with a switchblade. The 21-year-old then rammed the knife into the victim’s upper body. The 17-year-old then kicked the dying man.
The German defendants had acted insidiously and for base motives, the verdict said. It was about “violence for its own sake” – according to the court, “the unconditional will to use violence” is in the foreground here. The 21-year-old made the decision to stab the 19-year-old just seconds before the crime. The 17-year-old “absolutely approved” of it and kicked the victim massively.
Men come from good homes
Both men “come from a good social background,” said the judge. They had been offered a lot by their parents. But they felt drawn to a scene “where crime creates role models, where drug use is considered a status symbol”.
The prosecutor had demanded prison sentences of eleven and eight years for murder. The 21-year-old’s lawyer, who confessed to the knife attack, pleaded guilty to manslaughter, the 17-year-old’s lawyer to dangerous bodily harm. The verdict is not yet legally binding.