TRIER, Germany (Reuters) – A German court on Tuesday sentenced a 52-year-old man to life in prison for killing five people, including a baby, by driving a speeding car into a pedestrian zone in the western city of Trier.
A Trier court also ordered the man, who had been drinking before the killings, to undergo psychiatric treatment.
Authorities said at the time the 2020 killings appeared to be deliberate and he was convicted of murder. The accused, Bernd W., had spent several nights in the vehicle and did not seem to have a fixed address.
A lawyer for the man, whose last name cannot be disclosed under German privacy laws, said he was considering whether to appeal against the sentence.
Five people including a nine-week-old baby were killed and up to 15 injured in the attack on Dec. 1, 2020.
“I’m relieved its over,” said Wolfgang Hilsemer, whose sister was one of the victims. “He’s going to sleep either in prison or in a psychiatric ward. And I’m relieved that’s the outcome.”
(Reporting by Petra Wischgoll and Andreas Kranz, writing by Madeline Chambers and Thomas Escritt, editing by Nick Macfie)