Berlin Attacker Dies after a Shootout With Police In Italy

By Richard Chiu
Berlin Attack
A makeshift memorial for the victims of the Berlin Christmas market attack is filled with flowers and candles brought by mourners.  Twitter/ FranklinGraham

Days after the deadly truck ramming attack in Berlin, 24-year old terror suspect Anis Amri was killed in a gunfight with police Friday morning.

According to CNN, Milan police conducting routine patrol operations near a train station at the Sesto San Giovanni district were fired upon by Amri who may have been spooked by the presence of the authorities. Police Officer Christian Morio who fatally shot Amri was also injured in the encounter and is being treated for gunshot wounds.

The officers chanced upon Amri and asked for his identification papers when he suddenly grabbed a .22 caliber firearm from his backpack and fired at the police hitting Morio. Amri was also heard shouting "bastard cops" before he succumbed to his gunshot wounds.

Just right after news spread out that Amri was shot dead, ISIS released a video online where it shows Amri pledging allegiance to the radical Islam terror group. Amri originally hailed from Tunisia and has lived in Italy for some time.

Police Chief Antonio de Isu said that Morio, together with fellow police officer Luca Scata, were on standard patrol operations nor were they on alert for Amri as a subject of a manhunt related to the Berlin attack. De Isu adds that they have not received any alert that the Berlin attacker was in the city.

Questions are now being raised by several quarters regarding security concerns in Europe since Amri was able to cross through no less than two European borders when he fled after the Berlin attack.

Amri, the Berlin attacker that who was responsible for the deaths of 12 people and wounding 48 others, commandeered a truck loaded with steel at gunpoint from its Polish driver. He shot the driver dead before taking off with the stolen truck. Investigators found the body of the driver inside the truck together with some documents believed to belong to Amri.

On Monday, Amri was believed to be at the wheel of the truck that rammed into a busy Berlin market street. Authorities initially held a person of interest who they suspected was involved in the attack, but was released after investigators found fingerprints in the truck matching Amri's that led to the order for the manhunt.

ISIS claimed they inspired the attack carried out by Amri based on statements published in the group's affiliated news outfit Amaq News Agency. The attack, according to the statement, was carried out by a "soldier of the Islamic State" in response to their campaigns to launch attacks in the West and its allies.

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