Five people were killed when the 52-year-old raced through the pedestrian zone in his SUV on December 1, 2020. He was charged with five counts of murder and 18 counts of attempted murder. The Trier Regional Court also ordered him to be placed in a high security psychiatric hospital. The court agreed with prosecutors that the man had tried to kill or injure as many people as possible. A nine-week-old baby and the baby's father were among those killed in the rampage. According to a psychiatrist's report, the 52-year-old suffered from paranoid schizophrenia with bizarre delusions. The expert had reported that the accused saw himself as the victim of "a large-scale state conspiracy" and felt he was persecuted, bugged and was being monitored. The accused had said however he had no recollection of the time of the crime. The trained electrician kept silent throughout the trial. According to the prosecution, he was single, unemployed, without a permanent residence and frustrated by his personal circumstances. Bernd Steinmetz from a national victims' association told dpa that the families were relieved it was over as it had been "a strain now for a long time."