2011 Frankfurt Airport shooting

Terrorist attack in Frankfurt, Germany the attack in 1985 1985 Frankfurt Airport bombing September 2019 2011 Frankfurt Airport shooting Flughafen FFM - Gedenken an Anschlag vom 02.03.2011.jpg An improvised memorial to the victims, a few days after the attack: de Wut, Trauer + warum? ('Anger, mourning + why?') Frankfurt Airport, Frankfurt am Main, Germany 2 March 2011 UTC+01:00 United States Air Force Mass shooting 2 2 Arid Uka FN P35 pistol (9mm) Reaction to United States military violence against Muslims Islamic extremism The 2011 Frankfurt Airport shooting occurred on 2 March 2011 at Frankfurt Airport in Germany. The shooter, Arid Uka, was arrested and charged with killing two United States Airmen and seriously wounding two others. He was convicted of murder and attempted murder and sentenced to life in prison on 10 February 2012.Frankfurt airport gunman jailed for life https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-16984066 10 February 2012 BBC News 10 February 2012 According to the court judge at de Oberlandesgericht (Higher Regional Court) Frankfurt, this was the first terrorist attack in Germany in which the perpetrator had an Islamist motive.https://www.rtl.de/cms/frankfurter-terror-prozess-lebenslang-fuer-arid-uka-1021700.html Terrorprozess: Lebenslang für Arid Uka rtl.de de https://web.archive.org/web/20181219001236/https://www.rtl.de/cms/frankfurter-terror-prozess-lebenslang-fuer-arid-uka-1021700.html 2018-12-19 "Wir haben es hier tatsächlich mit dem ersten islamistisch motivierten Terroranschlag auf deutschem Boden zu tun", sagte der Vorsitzende Richter Thomas Sagebiel in seiner Urteilsbegründung. ["We are actually dealing here with the first Islamist-motivated terrorist attack on German soil," said Judge Thomas Sagebiel in his verdict.] Shooting According to the German investigators, Uka targeted a United States Air Force bus parked outside the terminal building that was supposed to transport 15 U.S. airmen to Ramstein Air Base.Pidd Helen Frankfurt airport shooting may have Islamist link, say police https://www.theguardian.com/world/2011/mar/03/frankfurt-airport-shooting-islamist-link? 6 March 2011 The Guardian 3 March 2011 London He reportedly walked up to a waiting airman, asked him for a cigarette, and wanted to know whether the airmen were bound for Afghanistan.Frankfurt airport shooting: Jammed gun 'saved lives' https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-12647093 6 March 2011 BBC News 4 March 2011 When the airman said yes, according to German prosecutor Rainer Griesbaum, Uka waited for the airman to turn away and then shot him in the back of the head, killing him. Shouting "Allahu Akbar!"Alex Sundby CBS News Source: Air Force shooter shouted "Allahu akbar" https://www.cbsnews.com/news/source-air-force-shooter-shouted-allahu-akbar/ 3 March 2011Bob Orr KRTV-TV CBS News Killer of U.S. airmen is radical Muslim, German official says http://www.krtv.com/news/killer-of-u-s-airmen-is-radical-muslim-german-official-says/ 3 March 2011 https://web.archive.org/web/20140714210229/http://www.krtv.com/news/killer-of-u-s-airmen-is-radical-muslim-german-official-says/ 14 July 2014 the attacker then entered the bus, shooting and killing the driver, fired three shots at two other airmen, wounding them. When he pointed his pistol at the head of Sergeant Trevor Brewer and pulled the trigger, the weapon jammed. Uka fled but was pursued by the civilian airport employee Lamar Joseph Conner and Staff Sergeant Trevor Donald Brewer and shortly afterwards overpowered by two German police officers.http://www.bmi.bund.de/SharedDocs/Kurzmeldungen/EN/2012/01/verdienstkreuz.html Federal Minister Friedrich presents two Americans with Cross of the Order of Merit https://web.archive.org/web/20140714223935/http://www.bmi.bund.de/SharedDocs/Kurzmeldungen/EN/2012/01/verdienstkreuz.html 14 July 2014 He was subsequently arrested. The two victims killed in the shooting were Senior Airman Nicholas Alden, 25, of South Carolina and Airman First Class Zachary Cuddeback, 21, of Virginia. Staff Sgt. Kristoffer Schneider was shot in the right temple and lost his sight in one eye. The right side of his face had to be rebuilt with titanium, and he suffers head pain and seizures. Part of his skull also had to be removed after an infection. Schneider was medically retired in 2012.https://www.af.mil/News/Article-Display/Article/109804/from-tragedy-comes-triumph-wounded-warrior-shares-his-story/ From tragedy comes triumph: Wounded warrior shares his story 28 January 2013 United States Air Forces 11 April 2017 The couple and their children decided to make Grand Forks, N.D., their home after Schneider medically retired from the Air Force late last year. Edgar Veguilla was hit in the jaw and arm and suffered nerve damage.http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/02/10/arid-uka-frankfurt-sentenced_n_1267770.html Huffington Post Eline Gordts Arid Uka, Frankfurt Airport Shooter, Sentenced To Life 10 February 2012 Conner and Brewer later received the Order of Merit of the Federal Republic of Germany in a ceremony on 16 January 2012. Federal Interior Minister Hans-Peter Friedrich presented the decoration, citing their "exemplary courage and action which helped the Federal Police arrest the suspect". Perpetrator Arid Uka, the 21-year-old perpetrator, was a Kosovo-born ethnic Albanian Muslim who had lived in Germany since he was one year old; his family having lived in there for four decades. His grandfather was a Kosovo Albanian imam, while his parents and two brothers led secular lives.BKA: Keine radikale Familie um Flughafen-Täter. In: Focus, 14. November 2011 focus.de (in German)Flughafen-Attentäter verurteilt: Lebenslänglich für Arid Uka https://web.archive.org/web/20150611021423/http://www.berliner-zeitung.de/politik/flughafen-attentaeter-verurteilt-lebenslaenglich-fuer-arid-uka,10808018,11609386.html 11 June 2015. In: Berliner Zeitung, 10 February 2012 berliner-zeitung.de (in German) He had been working at the airport post office. He had not shown any jihadist inclinations before the attacks, but radicalized rapidly beginning in late summer 2010.Steinberg Guido German Jihad: On the Internationalization of Islamist Terrorism 2013 Columbia University Press 978-0-231-50053-1 Columbia studies in terrorism and irregular warfare New York, NY 3 Prologue: Lone-Wolf Attacks and the Europlot In the months before the attack, he underwent a late-adolescent crisis.http://www.freudconference.com.au/downloads/BohleberLeuzinger-BohleberRadicalizationinadolescence1-2.pdf Bohleber, Werner, and Marianne LeuzingerBohleber. "Processes of Political and Terrorist Radicalization in Late Adolescence–Some Case Examples." 16 October 2017 10 March 2018 https://web.archive.org/web/20180310190303/http://freudconference.com.au/downloads/BohleberLeuzinger-BohleberRadicalizationinadolescence1-2.pdf dead Uka left school before his university-entrance diploma, but did not tell his family. Instead, he told them that he had finished the diploma successfully. His family members, former friends, and one of his employers described him as introverted, polite, and not aggressive. Months before the shooting, Uka broke ties to all his friends and retreated. During this time, he was extensively surfing the web visiting websites with Salafi jihadist content.Höchststrafe für US-Soldaten-Mord. In: Die Tageszeitung, 10 February 2012 die Tageszeitung (in German) He started wearing typically Islamic clothing and began to study Arabic. Uka decided to join the fighting in Iraq or Afghanistan but failed to do so since he failed to establish the right contacts. Through the internet, Uka established contact with Sheikh Abdellatif, a Moroccan preacher and jihadism supporter affiliated with the Da'wa group, who preached in two mosques in Frankfurt. The Salafi mosque of these two is considered as a meeting-point for radical Islamists. Several well-known Islamists have been seen there.Der Frankfurter Pistolenschütze und seine Kontakte‘‘. In: heise online, 3. März 2011 heise.de (in German) An early example of Salafist lone wolf terrorism in Europe, Uka's sole contacts with extremists was online, he never had direct personal contact and was never involved in physical network.Janis Just Jihad 2.0: The Impact of Social Media on the Salafist Scene and the Nature of Terrorism https://books.google.com/books?id=sdUxBgAAQBAJ&pg=PA57 2015 Anchor Academic Publishing (aap_verlag) 978-3-95489-338-6 56–57 According to German authorities, Uka confessed to the killings when interrogated after the shooting. Uka's lawyer said that the motivation for the shooting was a video on YouTube, which showed U.S. soldiers raping Iraqi Muslim women. Uka was convinced that the video was genuine, but it was in fact a clip taken from Redacted, an American film based on the Mahmudiyah massacre. On the internet, Uka posted on several Islamist forums, later claiming that through the content and the discussions in these forums, he came to believe that his fellow Muslims were in global war with the United States.Lee Jarvis Stuart MacDonald Thomas M. Chen Terrorism Online: Politics, Law and Technology https://books.google.com/books?id=pNgqBwAAQBAJ&pg=PA35 2015 Routledge 978-1-317-90803-6 41, 46, 101https://books.google.com/books?id=4RdfCgAAQBAJ&pg=PA180 43773679 Terrorist Migration to Social Media Georgetown Journal of International Affairs 16 1 180–187 Weimann Gabriel 2015 9781626162259 Uka was also influenced by jihadist nasheeds,Thomas Hegghammer Jihadi Culture https://books.google.com/books?id=rJokDwAAQBAJ&pg=PA79 2017 Cambridge University Press 978-1-107-01795-5 79–81 including a nasheed made by Abou Maleeq,https://www.thelocal.de/20120316/41385 Jihadist songs loved by US airmen's killer banned 16 March 2012 The Local Germany who would later join the Islamic State.https://nypost.com/2015/02/11/the-rapping-butcher-of-isis-german-jihadist-becomes-terrorists-poster-boy/ The rapping butcher of ISIS: German jihadist becomes terrorists' poster boy Benjamin Weinthal New York Post 11 February 2015 Trial and sentence During Uka's trial, his defence lawyer described him as a non-typical violent criminal who is neither religiously motivated nor an Islamist terrorist, while the Attorney General of Germany named Uka as a single perpetrator, which was applied for a sentence of life imprisonment plus a finding of "exceptional gravity of guilt".Pressemitteilung des Generalbundesanwalts vom 7. Juli 2011 https://web.archive.org/web/20140714185227/http://www.generalbundesanwalt.de/de/showpress.php?newsid=406 14 July 2014 generalbundesanwalt.de (in German) On 10 February 2012, the Hessian State Superior Court (Oberlandesgericht Frankfurt am Main) sentenced Uka to life imprisonment for two counts of murder and three counts of attempted murder with the determination of an "exceptional gravity of guilt", which means that he will not be eligible for parole after having served fifteen years. Because he was sentenced to more than three years imprisonment, he will be deported to Kosovo after having served his sentence as he does not hold German citizenship.https://www.welt.de/politik/deutschland/article13862150/Arid-Uka-droht-nach-der-Haft-Abschiebung-ins-Kosovo.html Flughafenattentäter: Arid Uka droht nach der Haft Abschiebung ins Kosovo Crolly Hannelore 10 February 2012 DIE WELT See also List of Islamist terrorist attacks Germany Law Islam References Category:2011 crimes in Germany Category:2011 in international relations Category:2011 in military history Category:2011 mass shootings in Europe Category:2011 murders in Germany Category:March 2011 crimes in Europe Category:March 2011 in Germany Category:Islamic terrorist incidents in 2011 Category:Terrorist incidents in Germany in 2011 Category:2010s in Frankfurt Category:21st-century history of the United States Air Force Category:American people murdered abroad Category:Crime in Frankfurt Category:Islamic terrorism in Germany Category:Spree shootings in Germany Category:Terrorist attacks on airports in Europe Category:Terrorist incidents on buses in Europe Category:Mass shootings in Germany Category:Germany–United States relations Category:Attacks on buildings and structures in Germany Category:Attacks on buildings and structures in 2011 Category:Attacks on military targets Category:History of the Islamic State Category:Frankfurt Airport