The Prosecutor's Office asks to investigate the ax attack at a McDonald's in Badalona for terrorism

The Prosecutor’s Office of the National Court has reported in favor of investigating as an alleged crime of terrorism the case opened against a man arrested on March 27 for breaking some windows of the McDonald’s restaurant in the Màgic shopping center in Badalona with an ax.

The person under investigation is Hamza Warris, of Pakistani nationality, and who after the event was placed in provisional prison on March 29 by order of the Investigative Court No. 4 of Badalona, ??which was the one that inhibited the National Court due to suspicions of that it was a jihadist attack, sources from the Prosecutor’s Office have informed EFE.

Prosecutor Raquel de Miguel has issued this report supporting the competence of the National Court to investigate these events after requesting it from Judge Joaquín Gadea, who took charge of the case after the Badalona court recused itself.

In her report, the prosecutor relates that the investigated person went to the Màgic shopping center in Badalona, ??dressed in a Palestinian headscarf as a prior liturgy and carrying a large ax with which in the middle of the public street, in a place and time where there was a large crowd, he went to the McDonald’s establishment in the shopping center.

“Once inside he began to brandish the ax, attacking a display case with it and fracturing the windows of one of the windows, causing a climate of collective terror and hysteria. The subject was intercepted by a citizen who had to avoid the action of this one with the ax, managing to immobilize him.”

“From what has been done up to this point in the procedure, and without prejudice to what results from the investigation, the facts would constitute an alleged crime of integration/collaboration with a terrorist organization, being a violent action individually or alone, in compliance with the postulates of Jihad,” says the prosecutor.

After the event, the man was placed at the disposal of the aforementioned Badalona investigative court, on guard duty, which decreed his reported provisional arrest without bail.

An off-duty Mossos d’Esquadra agent, with the help of a private security guard, was able to subdue the man until the first patrol of the Generalitat Police arrived, which proceeded to arrest him.

Police sources initially ruled out terrorist motivation, but after new investigations, the Badalona investigative court chose to recuse itself in favor of the National Court when considering the jihadist component in the attack.