Hassan Abbassian N. has a long criminal record. He committed extensive criminal activity in Europe and has a total of 27 identities. He came to Germany in 2002 and in the following years engaged in “criminal nomadism” across Europe despite several rejected asylum applications, Bild writes, citing information from the police file.
He lived most of the time in France, where he also committed crimes. In 2010, he served a prison sentence of four years and six months in Germany for grievous bodily harm, damage to property, attempted rape, resistance to the police, threats and insults.
Hassan Abbassian N. tried to set fire to the cinema foyer in Krefeld on Thursday evening. He also brought a container of gasoline with him. That day, shortly before 8:00 p.m., the police received information about three other fires. He first started a fire in his apartment, then broke the windows of a parked car that belonged to the Catholic charity Caritas, and finally ran to the employment office, where he broke the windows and threw an incendiary device into the room.
The police shot him
Then he tried to set fire to the cinema, where at that moment there were about 150 people. The policemen shot him and the man ended up in the hospital, where doctors operated on him. According to the latest reports, his life should be out of danger.
Two days before this rampage, the Iranian threatened an employee of the immigration office because he did not want to give him a residence permit under a false name. He was supposed to threaten him with a knife in his hand. In addition, he broke the windows of the gas station. The police took him away from the crime scene in handcuffs, he was released shortly afterwards.
Criminal investigators investigate not only the course of the crime, but also determine the motive of his attacks. Provincial Minister of the Interior Herbert Reul said that the man apparently had psychological problems.
