By Daily Mail (U.S.) | Created at 2024-12-22 15:31:43 | Updated at 2024-12-22 20:28:05
5 hours ago
Appearing smiling and relaxed, this is the moment Taleb Al Abdulmohsen waltzed into a snack bar just 24 hours before his alleged killing spree.
The 50-year-old doctor is pictured casually sauntering into the Saale Grill, just moments away from his home, and grabbing a beer from the fridge in the town of Bernburg on Thursday evening.
He is accused of ploughing his BMW rental into hundreds of innocent people enjoying a Christmas market in the city of Magdeburg some 30 miles away the very next day.
The owner of the takeaway restaurant told MailOnline that the alleged killer appeared relaxed and happy when he popped in at around 8pm - but was distracted by his mobile phone.
Yasser Al-Alo said the doctor from Saudi was a regular who enjoyed beer and visited the shop as many as four times a week.
'He came to eat at our place very often. I recognised his face, but I had no personal contact with him. He would always come and eat, wanted to stay alone, and didn’t talk much at all.'
The father of three said that he identified him almost instantly as the man arrested at the scene of the tragedy on Friday night after seeing pictures on social media.
'The morning after the attack, I was on TikTok and was shocked I knew him,' he said.
Appearing smiling and relaxed, this is the moment Taleb Al Abdulmohsen waltzed into a snack bar just 24 hours before his alleged killing spree
The 50-year-old doctor is pictured casually sauntering into the Saale Grill and grabbing a beer from the fridge just moments away from his home in the town of Bernburg on Thursday
Police arrested an 'unstable' 50-year-old Saudi doctor identified as Taleb al-Abdulmohsen after he allegedly rammed his SUV into a packed market in the town of Magdeburg
Four women aged 45 to 75 and nine-year-old André Gleißner (pictured) were killed
'Then I went to the shop and checked the surveillance camera. It was on 19th December, around 8 PM.
'On that day, he seemed completely normal. Just like always, I didn’t notice anything different. He was also on his phone the whole time.'
The owner said that the doctor stayed for almost two hours and left just minutes before closing at 10pm.
While there he drank Becks Green Lemon and ate scampi and flat bread.
He said that while he saw the suspect often their interactions were always limited to polite greetings.
The businessman added: 'He would always take the drinks himself from the fridge. He was always on his phone.
Police officers secure the area during the German Chancellor's visit to the scene of a vehicle-ramming attack on the Christmas market in Magdeburg
A woman holds a candle as others watch a prayer ceremony outside the Magdeburg Dom church, the day after the devastating attack
People lay flowers at a makeshift memorial near the site of a car-ramming attack on a Christmas market in Magdeburg
'Once, I asked him where he was from. He said he was Arab but didn’t want to say which country.'
The alleged killer lived just a few streets away in a modern apartment block where police were seen removing several boxes of evidence yesterday.
He is accused of killing five people - including a nine-year-old boy- and injuring as many as 200 others by ramming his car into visitors enjoying the Christmas market.
