Berlin: Guard Shot and Injured During Failed Bank Robbery

Update: August 4th, 2020, 1:03 p.m. CEDT

At Berlin’s Bundesplatz, a square in the Wilmersdorf district, at least three gangsters tried to mug a bank on Tuesday morning. A security guard was shot and injured.

Today’s bank heist on a ‘Volksbank’ branch at ‘Bundesplatz’ took place at around 9:30 a.m. CEDT this morning. At 9:37 a.m., a caller alarmed the fire department because of a burning vehicle on ‘Detmolder Strasse’. Once they were on site with their colleagues from the Berlin Police Department, it turned out the fire was caused by gangsters. The vehicle was theirs. They reportedly tried to break into the branch from the yard, using the vehicle.

Bullet Wound

During the attempt, they were approached by two security guards. The gangsters fired shots and injured one of the guards badly, but his injuries are not life-threatening, according to German-language media. The victim sustained a bullet wound.

Twenty firefighter were at the crime scene in the late morning. So were police officers, including an elite unit with machine guns. Police investigators were interviewing witnesses. Other officers blocked ‘Bundesallee’, a major street, in its southern direction. ‘Detmolder Strasse’ is closed in the area around ‘Bundesplatz’. The Police Department asked Berliners to bypass the entire area.

At first, media had reported a cash truck had been mugged. Then it turned out it was the bank itself. Whether the robbery was successful is unclear at this stage.

First Choice

It is not the first time a crime of this kind takes place in that area. On June 16th, gangsters managed to steal a suitcase full of cash from a security guard, who was going to take the money to the very same ‘Volksbank’ branch. They reportedly managed to flee with roughly half a million Euro. That spot seems to be the first choice for robbers, maybe because it is easy to get away from there.

On Friday of last week, gangsters had tried tried to steal a cash bag from a guard at a ‘Postbank’ branch inside a department store at Berlin’s ‘Hermannplatz’, a square between ‘Kreuzberg’ and ‘Neukölln’. In this case they were not successful, meaning they left the crime scene without prey.

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