NYPD Beefing Up Patrols At Transit Locations In Wake Of Knife Attack At German Train Station
NEW YORK (CBSNewYork/AP) -- The NYPD is beefing up patrols at transit locations throughout the city Tuesday following a deadly knife attack at a train station in Germany, Police Commissioner Bill Bratton said.
While there is no known threat here at home, Bratton said NYPD detectives stationed in Europe will gather intelligence about the attack at a station outside Munich so authorities can analyze and protect the city.
"The name of the game in this world is intelligence -- get them before they get us," Bratton told CNBC's "Squawk Box."
German officials said one person was killed and several others wounded in the stabbing attack at the Grafing Bahnhof station Tuesday morning.
Prosecutors said the assailant made "politically motivated comments'' as he attacked, and that they're investigating witness reports he yelled "Allahu Akbar'' which is Arabic for "God is great.''
Police spokesman Karl-Heinz Segerer said that the suspected assailant is a 27-year-old German national who doesn't live in Bavaria. He said the man "expressed political motivations'' during the attack but didn't give details, saying that is a matter for the investigation.
State Interior Minister Joachim Herrmann said after a Cabinet meeting in Munich Tuesday that the suspect confessed to carrying out the attack, news agency dpa reported.
He said investigators have no indication so far that there was an Islamic extremist motive though they are still looking at whether there's a political background.
Another senior police official, Lothar Koehler, said the suspect made a "rather confused impression'' during questioning.
Officials say there appears to have been no particular reason for the man to choose the Grafing Bahnhof station as the location for his attack. They say he caught a train there from Munich in the early hours of the morning.
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