Police violence in Berlin | Racist attack: Police student only gets a warning

Racist insults, kicks in the head of an unconscious man: the trial against an ex-police student ended with a warning. Photo: dpa | Michael Reichel At what age does one reach the mental maturity that enables one not to insult someone racially, not to hit or kick someone? This is the subject of a case in which a former police student had to answer before the Tiergarten district court on Thursday. The 21-year-old Ryan S. was found guilty of grievous bodily harm and insult.

S. had insulted a man with the N-word, hit him in the face with his fist and kicked him in the head while he was already unconscious on the ground. Nevertheless, the former police student got away with a warning and 60 hours of community service. The reason: The court classified the act as “youthful misconduct”.

But what actually happened? On Friday, August 8, 2025, the police students Ryan S. (then 20), Max L.* (then 18) and Tobias G.* (then 17) meet at Rosenthaler Platz and drink a bottle of whiskey together, as L. and G. report as witnesses in court. The trio gets on the train drunk and gets off again at Alexanderplatz.

There they meet the victim Ayo M.* and his eleven-year-old son Malik M. None of them really want to remember exactly how the three police students met him. L. and G. only hear screams at some point and see the injured person lying on the ground. Someone in the “mob” is also said to have shouted an insult. But definitely not the N-word.

The trio quickly leaves after the attack, but is stopped by colleagues. Passers-by called the police after they saw the altercation. After the police questioned the three, the State Criminal Police Office (LKA) initiated an investigation. In addition to criminal consequences, legal consequences were also examined.

The defendant S. and the witness G. were then dismissed from service. Only witness L. is still on duty. In court he presents himself as a mediator. He tried to “go in between,” as he says. He didn't feel like the stress with S., who is said to have attacked a homeless person on the way to Alexanderplatz.

However, his clean slate gets a few stains. The LKA found a post on his social media channel that he had shared from another channel. The post called for all people who were called the N-word to be hanged. In addition, the injured party's son testified in court that he remembered that one of the other two police students, possibly even the trainee police officer L., held his father before the defendant S. hit him in the face.

Both the prosecutor and the judge doubt that the witnesses Max L. and Tobias G. really cannot remember. They also partly contradict each other when asked whether they talked about the evening again after the crime and whether they were still in contact with the defendant Ryan S.

Although the defendant S. was already an adult at the time of the crime, he can be treated according to juvenile criminal law. This is possible if he is either delayed in his moral and intellectual development or if the crime is a so-called juvenile offense.

According to the public prosecutor, the defendant's 2.1 per mille indicates "youthful misconduct." Nevertheless, she recognizes a “clearly racially motivated act,” as she says in her plea. The defendant's defense attorney wants to recognize his immaturity in the fact that the 21-year-old often appeared at legal appointments accompanied by his mother and still lives at home. "He's a different person now," he defends his client and points out that his client has already completed five units of anti-violence training on the subject of racism.

The five units completed are enough for the court not to require the defendant to undergo further training. In addition to the hours worked, Ryan S. has to pay an additional 3,000 euros in compensation to the injured party. That is a comparatively high sum for proceedings under juvenile criminal law, says co-plaintiff Leonora Arslani in an interview with “nd”.

In her plea, the lawyer highlights the racist component of the crime. The defendant “specifically degraded her client because of his skin color.” In her opinion, the crime is not a case of “youthful misconduct.” The younger generation in particular doesn't just use the N-word. Rather, the proceedings add up to a series of right-wing extremist incidents in the police and show the strong esprit de corps within the authority. For Arslani, it is a “scandal” that Max L. is still in service.

Ayo M. and his son Malik have the summer evening in August deeply in their bones, as they both said in court. “All I remember is that me and my father wanted to go to Burger King,” reports Malik, now twelve, about the beginning of the evening.

When the judge asked him how he felt after the crime, he thought briefly. "I've thought about it," he says. He also talked to his mother about therapy. Above all, he felt bad for his father because he had been hurt.

The two are accompanied in court by around ten solidarity trial observers. He didn't get justice that day, Ayo M. told »nd« after the trial. The three police students laughed as he lay on the ground - and even as he was being carried into the ambulance. "I'm scared, keep your distance," he is said to have said to the police officer after he was punched and kicked. According to Ayo M., he no longer trusts the police since that day.

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