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| Berlin Attack Suspect Is Killed by Police Near Milan | Berlin Attack Suspect Is Killed by Police Near Milan |
| (35 minutes later) | |
| SESTO SAN GIOVANNI, Italy — It was a routine identity check, the kind Italy has relied more on to stem the flow of illegal migration deeper into Europe. But the man stopped by two police officers around 3 a.m. Friday outside the northern city of Milan was anything but an ordinary drifter. | |
| He turned out to be perhaps Europe’s most wanted man, Anis Amri, the chief suspect in the deadly terrorist attack on a Christmas market in Berlin that killed 12 people. Asked to show his papers and empty his backpack, he pulled a gun, shot one officer, and in turn was shot and killed by another. | He turned out to be perhaps Europe’s most wanted man, Anis Amri, the chief suspect in the deadly terrorist attack on a Christmas market in Berlin that killed 12 people. Asked to show his papers and empty his backpack, he pulled a gun, shot one officer, and in turn was shot and killed by another. |
| “Police bastards,” Mr. Amri, who turned 24 this week, shouted in Italian before dying, according to the account given by Antonio De Iesu, director of the Milan police, at a news conference. | “Police bastards,” Mr. Amri, who turned 24 this week, shouted in Italian before dying, according to the account given by Antonio De Iesu, director of the Milan police, at a news conference. |
| For Italy, the shooting death of Mr. Amri, a Tunisian who had pledged his allegiance to the Islamic State in a video released by the group on Friday, spurred a moment of national pride and some reassurance that its security measures were working. | |
| For Germany, it brought a sense of palpable relief after a week of national anguish. “Now I can wish you all a really peaceful Christmas,” the German interior minister, Thomas de Maizière, told reporters Friday afternoon, as he thanked his Italian counterparts. | |
| But the death also raised numerous questions about Mr. Amri’s movements and motivations, as well as about the potential gaps in the security of a Europe of open borders. | |
| Law enforcement authorities issued a Europe-wide warrant on Wednesday for Mr. Amri, who moved to Italy in 2011, where he spent time in numerous prisons before making his way to Germany in 2015. | |
| Both countries had tried to deport him and were thwarted by a lack of documents and cooperation from his home country. | Both countries had tried to deport him and were thwarted by a lack of documents and cooperation from his home country. |
| Even after Mr. Amri was named as the prime suspect in the attack in Berlin, he was able to roam freely around Europe, his face plastered across the news media and a reward of more than $100,000 on his head. | |
| “This mobility is great for the law-abiding and equally great for the non-law-abiding,” said Douglas H. Wise, a former senior C.I.A. officer, of the borderless travel within the European Union. | “This mobility is great for the law-abiding and equally great for the non-law-abiding,” said Douglas H. Wise, a former senior C.I.A. officer, of the borderless travel within the European Union. |
| What Mr. Amri was doing in the four days between the attack in Berlin and when he was ultimately killed in Sesto San Giovanni, a suburb north of central Milan, is not clear, but that is now the subject of intense investigation that the authorities remain reluctant to discuss. | |
| Asked on Friday when exactly the authorities first lighted on Mr. Amri as a suspect, the head of Germany’s federal criminal police, Holger Münch, restated in general terms that it was on Tuesday, after investigators found an identity document in a wallet in the cab of the tractor-trailer used in the attack. | Asked on Friday when exactly the authorities first lighted on Mr. Amri as a suspect, the head of Germany’s federal criminal police, Holger Münch, restated in general terms that it was on Tuesday, after investigators found an identity document in a wallet in the cab of the tractor-trailer used in the attack. |
| The police have not said why the wallet was not discovered on Monday, when the attack occurred and a murdered driver was found in the cab. On Friday, Mr. Münch for the first time mentioned without further reference that an alias was involved, but he said the police had quickly linked it to Mr. Amri. | |
| A senior European counterterrorism official said that the delay in identifying Mr. Amri probably gave him a crucial head start of several hours to flee Germany, and that he would have been able to buy a train ticket to France and Italy without showing identification papers. | |
| Facial-recognition software on surveillance cameras in Europe is still in rudimentary form in most places, the official said, so even after Mr. Amri was identified, he could have slipped through the train stations undetected, especially if was wearing a hat or hood. | Facial-recognition software on surveillance cameras in Europe is still in rudimentary form in most places, the official said, so even after Mr. Amri was identified, he could have slipped through the train stations undetected, especially if was wearing a hat or hood. |
| Mr. Amri’s ability to hide through the week and make his way from Germany, through France, to Italy also raised questions of whether he had the help of a broader network, particularly one possibly linked to the Islamic State. | Mr. Amri’s ability to hide through the week and make his way from Germany, through France, to Italy also raised questions of whether he had the help of a broader network, particularly one possibly linked to the Islamic State. |
| The group called Mr. Amri “a soldier” in the video released on Friday, in which Mr. Amri proclaimed loyalty to the Islamic Sate leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi and declared that the attack in Berlin was intended to avenge coalition airstrikes in Syria that have killed civilians. | |
| The video was evidently filmed in the Moabit district of northern Berlin, on the Kieler bridge. The autumn foliage seen on trees suggested it was filmed in fall or even early December. | |
| In Germany, Mr. Amri came on the radar of the authorities in part for suspected ties to an Iraqi-born Salafist preacher who went by the name Abu Walaa who was jailed just weeks ago on suspicion of recruiting fighters to join the Islamic State. | In Germany, Mr. Amri came on the radar of the authorities in part for suspected ties to an Iraqi-born Salafist preacher who went by the name Abu Walaa who was jailed just weeks ago on suspicion of recruiting fighters to join the Islamic State. |
| Also unknown is whether Mr. Amri had any accomplices for the Berlin attack — a question that Peter Frank, Germany’s top federal prosecutor, identified as a priority for investigators. | Also unknown is whether Mr. Amri had any accomplices for the Berlin attack — a question that Peter Frank, Germany’s top federal prosecutor, identified as a priority for investigators. |
| “It is very important now to determine if there was a network of cooperators, a network of supporters, accessories or assistants helping him to prepare the attack, execute the attack and also to escape,” he told a news conference on Friday in Karlsruhe, Germany. | “It is very important now to determine if there was a network of cooperators, a network of supporters, accessories or assistants helping him to prepare the attack, execute the attack and also to escape,” he told a news conference on Friday in Karlsruhe, Germany. |
| The only uncertainty that seemed to be settled on Friday was that the man killed was indeed Mr. Amri. | The only uncertainty that seemed to be settled on Friday was that the man killed was indeed Mr. Amri. |
| “There is absolutely no doubt that the person who was killed was Anis Amri, the suspect in the terrorist attack in Berlin,” the Italian interior minister, Marco Minniti, said at a news conference. | |
| “As soon as this person entered our country, he was the most wanted man in Europe, and we immediately identified him and neutralized him,” Mr. Minniti said. “This means that our security is working really well.” | “As soon as this person entered our country, he was the most wanted man in Europe, and we immediately identified him and neutralized him,” Mr. Minniti said. “This means that our security is working really well.” |
| According to tickets that the Italian police found on Mr. Amri, he traveled by train from Chambéry, France, to Turin, in northwestern Italy. He then continued to Central Station in Milan, where he arrived around 1 a.m. Friday. | According to tickets that the Italian police found on Mr. Amri, he traveled by train from Chambéry, France, to Turin, in northwestern Italy. He then continued to Central Station in Milan, where he arrived around 1 a.m. Friday. |
| Surveillance cameras in the Milan train station recorded Mr. Amri’s movements, Italian investigators said. It was not clear how Mr. Amri then made his way to Sesto San Giovanni, about four miles away. | |
| “How he traveled there and what he was doing there are subject to delicate investigations,” Mr. De Iesu said at the news conference. “We have to understand whether he was in transit or was awaiting someone.” | |
| Sesto San Giovanni is a “a strategic hub for transportation,” the town’s deputy mayor, Andrea Rivolta, said in an interview in city hall. “Sesto is a junction for the railway system, the Milan metro, municipal buses and buses that reach all of Europe.” | |
| That is one reason the square in front of the station was patrolled frequently, said Mayor Monica Chitto’. | That is one reason the square in front of the station was patrolled frequently, said Mayor Monica Chitto’. |
| The operation that led to Mr. Amri’s discovery was “part of an operation that had nothing of the extraordinary and everything of the ordinary,” she told reporters at a news conference on Friday. | The operation that led to Mr. Amri’s discovery was “part of an operation that had nothing of the extraordinary and everything of the ordinary,” she told reporters at a news conference on Friday. |
| According to the account provided by Mr. De Iesu, Mr. Amri was standing alone on a piazza in Sesto San Giovanni, next to the northern terminus of a subway line. | |
| When the officers stopped him and asked for identification, he was “aggressive, firm and determined,” Mr. De Iesu said. | When the officers stopped him and asked for identification, he was “aggressive, firm and determined,” Mr. De Iesu said. |
| Mr. Amri responded, in good Italian with a North African accent, that he was not carrying any documents on him. They asked him to empty his pockets and backpack. He was carrying a small knife and the equivalent of a few hundred dollars, but no cellphone. | Mr. Amri responded, in good Italian with a North African accent, that he was not carrying any documents on him. They asked him to empty his pockets and backpack. He was carrying a small knife and the equivalent of a few hundred dollars, but no cellphone. |
| But then he pulled out a pistol, Mr. De Iesu said. | But then he pulled out a pistol, Mr. De Iesu said. |
| “It was a regular patrol, under the new system of intensified police checks on the territory,” he said. “They had no perception that it could be him, otherwise they’d have been more careful.” | “It was a regular patrol, under the new system of intensified police checks on the territory,” he said. “They had no perception that it could be him, otherwise they’d have been more careful.” |
| The officer whom Mr. Amri shot, identified as Cristian Movio, was wounded in the shoulder and had surgery on Friday. The other officer, who shot Mr. Amri, was identified as Luca Scatà. | |
| Thanks to the efforts of police officers, “the Italians can have a very happy Christmas,” Mr. Minniti said. “Italy should be really proud of our security.” |