During a routine identity check on a street in a city north of Milan, Anis Amri, the man believed to have committed the Berlin Christmas market terror attack on Monday, opened fire on police.
As reported by The New York Times, it was 3am in Sesto San Giovanni and, in a bid to adhere to the country’s crackdown on illegal migration, the police officers asked Amri to show his paperwork and empty his backpack.
It was then that Amri – who was on Germany’s most-wanted list – pulled out a gun and start firing.
According to The Guardian, one police officer was wounded in the shoot-out. His trainee partner then returned fire, shooting and killing the suspected terrorist.
The Italian police officers didn’t know who Anis Amri was before the shoot-out.
This comes after German police authorities confirmed that Amri was their chief suspect in the terror attack, with his fingerprints found on the steering wheel and the door of the truck that was driven directly into the Christmas markets.
Not only that, but Amri pledged his allegiance to the Islamic State (IS) group in a video posted online on Friday, with IS calling the now-deceased terror suspect “a soldier”.
They also allege that this attack on Berlin was in response to the coalition airstrikes in Syria that have killed civilians.
Our thoughts are with the friends and families of those killed and injured in the senseless Berlin Christmas market terror attack.
