Human Fresh Eating Luka Magnotta Apprehended in Berlin
Fugitive suspected killer Luka Rocco Magnotta was surfing Internet sites about himself when police arrested him Monday afternoon at a little cybercafé in Berlin.
“Okay, you’ve got me,” Magnotta, 29, told police after first trying to give them a false name, Berlin Police spokesman Thomas Neuendorf said.
“He gave up without resistence” around 1:30 p.m. at the Helin Tele-und InternetcafĂ© an an immigrant quarter of south Berlin, Neuendorf said.
He couldn’t say what name Magnotta was traveling under or whether he was carrying his Canadian passport.
Magnotta, whom European media have dubbed the “Canadian psycho,” was taken to a prison cell, where he will remain until his extradition to Canada, Neuendorf said.
“He was identified exactly,” Neuendorf said.
Montreal police spokesman Ian Lafreniere said at an afternoon news conference that Magnotta’s fingerprints matched his Interpol profile. How long the extradition will take isn’t yet clear, Lafreniere said.
Lafreniere couldn’t resist commenting on the irony of Magnotta lured to an Internet cafĂ© by his lust for publicity about himself.
“We knew and always said that he used the web to glorify himself,” Lafreniere said. “It was also the web that led to his arrest.”
Kadir Anlayisli, who works at the Internet café on Karl Marx Strasse in the Neukolln district of Berlin, spotted Magnotta, the subject of an international manhunt, when he walked in.
Anlayisli, 42, told a Turkish-language newspaper in Germany that he recognized Magnotta immediately.
The fugitive sat at the Number 25 terminal and started reading stories about himself.
“He was wearing sunglasses for a while, but I was sure that he was the wanted man,” Anlayisli said.
The cybercafé employee flagged down a police car on the street and several officers converged on the shop.
Magnotta was driven away to the police station.
Berlin police don’t know how Magnotta arrived in the German capital or where he was staying.
“You are a hero in many eyes,” Rachel Montgomery of Ottawa posted on Anlayisli’s Facebook site. Thanks and congratulations were arriving from around the world for the Internet cafĂ© clerk.
“It was with a lot of relief that our major crime investigators learned the news” at 12:40 p.m., Lafreniere said.
The police captain said there is further work to be done, including investigating ties Magnotta had with other people, and exploring other crimes he might possibly have been involved in.
“Our focus was to arrest him,” Lafreniere said. “Now it’s done.”
Magnotta had been the subject of an international manhunt for the gruesome killing and dismemberment of a student in Montreal. The self-described porn star had first been detected in France by police using his cellphone as a beacon. They even managed to find a hotel room where he had been staying.
“The man was seen in France, that’s what French authorities told us,” Lafreniere told reporters on the weekend.
“He can travel, he’s someone who has been known to travel, so we’re not taking any chances and we want to keep an open mind,” Lafreniere said. “We’ve received more than 360 tips, it’s huge, people really want to help.”
Magnotta, dubbed the Canadian psycho in the European press, is wanted in the chilling death of Jun Lin, 33, a Chinese student at Montreal’s Concordia University. Lin’s torso was found in a suitcase left for garbage collection outside Magnotta’s Montreal apartment last week. Other severed body parts, including a hand and a foot, were mailed to the offices of the federal Conservatives and Liberals.
Police believe Lin was killed and his body dismembered either on May 24 or 25 in a Montreal apartment. A 10-minute video of the savagery was posted online.
Shortly afterward, Interpol issued an international alert for Magnotta who was born Eric Clinton Newman in Scarborough and has also used the name Vladimir Romanov. Pictures posted Sunday on Magnotta’s page on the Interpol website show a man with dark hair and a black Mickey Mouse shirt passing through airport security. The airport wasn’t identified.
Magnotta arrived at the Paris Charles de Gaulle Airport on May 26 and was later identified on surveillance cameras, according to Le Figaro. He was apparently put up for one night by a man who later contacted authorities after realizing who his guest had been.
One published report said Magnotta was spotted in a bar and in a hotel where he spent two nights. Another French newspaper, Le Parisien, quoted the manager of a bar who said Magnotta ordered a soft drink at his establishment last Wednesday night and appeared “very nervous.”
The bar manager said the fugitive left with a man who had an “impressive physique.”
An official in the Paris prosecutor’s office, speaking on condition of anonymity, said police are looking into the alleged sightings but had no additional details.
Meanwhile, the Chinese embassy in Ottawa has issued a statement advising Chinese visitors to Canada to take safety precautions.
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