Suspect in deadly Berlin Pride attack pledged allegiance to Islamic State, prosecutors say

On July 25, 2026, Abdul Rahman Ballout, a 21-year-old German citizen of Lebanese descent who had recently been released from prison after being convicted of attempting to join the Islamic State, allegedly drove a van into crowds near the Berlin Pride celebration in downtown Berlin, killing one woman and injuring 29 others.

A crowd had gathered in a large Berlin park to celebrate the festival when, at approximately 10 pm, a white minivan sped into pedestrians, striking numerous people. Authorities reported that several victims also suffered stab wounds, possibly from a machete. The vehicle was later found abandoned after crashing into a tree.

The following day, July 26, German police shot and killed Ballout after a 24-hour manhunt. Officers located him in Spandau, a suburb of Berlin. According to authorities, Ballout charged at a police officer while armed with a sharp object, prompting officers to open fire. He was pronounced dead at the scene.

A spokesperson for the Berlin Public Prosecutor’s Office told Agence France-Presse that investigators recovered a video from a cellphone found inside the crashed minivan. The video, recorded on the night of the attack, reportedly showed Ballout pledging allegiance to the Islamic State. Although the individual in the video was masked, authorities believe it was Ballout.

According to German prosecutors, Ballout traveled to Lebanon in May 2025 in an attempt to join the Islamic State in Syria. While there, he reportedly tried to establish contact with several individuals whom he believed to be members of the Islamic State.

Lebanese authorities arrested him in July 2025, and a military court sentenced him to three months in prison for inciting religious and sectarian conflict. After returning to Germany in November 2025, Ballout was arrested at Berlin Brandenburg Airport pursuant to a warrant issued by the Tiergarten District Court at the request of the Berlin Attorney General’s Office. He remained in pretrial detention until his trial.

In May 2026, a German court sentenced Ballout to 22 months’ imprisonment for preparing a “serious act of violence endangering the state” and for violating Germany’s Associations Act by publishing Islamic State propaganda on Instagram. The court deferred its decision on whether to suspend the sentence for probation. It released him under parole supervision, citing the six months he had spent in pretrial detention in Germany, the three months he had served in Lebanon, and his apparent renunciation of the Islamic State. Ballout was released from prison under the supervision of a probation officer. Prosecutors appealed the sentence, arguing for a longer prison term and continued detention.

Less than a month before the attack, on July 3, investigators from the Berlin Office of the Attorney General searched Ballout’s Berlin residence as part of a weapons investigation. Authorities found only a toy gun, and the investigation was subsequently closed.

Ballout also had a prior criminal record. In 2019, he assaulted another student at a Berlin secondary school, and in 2020, he and an accomplice robbed a victim of a pair of headphones. He was convicted of those offenses in 2022.

Will Selber is a retired US CENTCOM foreign area officer with over 4 years in Iraq and Afghanistan. He is the owner of Grumpy Combat Veteran on Substack.