In the terrorist attack in Hanau on 19 February 2020, nine people were murdered in two locations for racist motives. Ferhat Unvar, Hamza Kurtović, Said Nesar Hashemi, Vili Viorel Păun, Mercedes Kierpacz, Kaloyan Velkov, Fatih Saraçoğlu, Sedat Gürbüz and Gökhan Gültekin.
At the first crime scene in the city centre on Heumarkt, the perpetrator murdered Kaloyan Velkov in the La Votre bar, where Kaloyan worked as a bartender. He then shot Fatih Saraçoğlu on the street, who had brought a friend there. Sedat Gürbüz was murdered in his bar Midnight.
Vili Viorel Păun drove into the street looking for a parking space and the perpetrator fired several shots at his car. Vili chased after the perpetrator, first preventing him from parking and then following him to Kesselstadt. On the way, he tried to call 110 several times in vain. He was shot dead in his car in the car park at Kurt-Schumacher-Platz in Kesselstadt.
The perpetrator then murdered Mercedes Kierpacz, Gökhan Gültekin and Ferhat Unvar in the 24/7 kiosk. In the neighbouring Arena Bar, he shot Said Nesar Hashemi and Hamza Kurtović. There were numerous survivors at the crime scenes, some of whom were explicitly threatened or survived seriously injured.
The attack lasted just over 5 minutes in total. The perpetrator was known to the police and the public prosecutor and had a legal firearms licence despite self-disclosure. Days earlier, he had used graffiti to draw attention to his website, where his racist manifesto could be viewed. He later murdered his mother before killing himself. His father, who is known to have shared his son’s extreme right and racist worldview, was the only survivor in the house. He claimed not to have seen or heard anything. The police already knew the address of the perpetrator shortly after the attack, but they did not enter the house until four and a half hours later.
