The shooter, Arid Uka, was arrested and charged with killing two United States Airmen and seriously wounding two others.

"[5][6] the attacker then entered the bus, shooting and killing the driver, fired three shots at two other airmen, wounding them.

Uka fled, but was pursued by the civilian airport employee Lamar Joseph Conner and Staff Sergeant Trevor Donald Brewer and shortly afterwards overpowered by two German police officers.

[4][9] Conner and Brewer later received the Order of Merit of the Federal Republic of Germany in a ceremony on 16 January 2012.

[13] Through the internet, Uka established contact with Sheikh Abdellatif, a Moroccan preacher and jihadism supporter affiliated with the Da'wa group, who preached in two mosques in Frankfurt.

[3] Uka's lawyer said that the motivation for the shooting was a video on YouTube, which showed US soldiers raping Iraqi Muslim women.

Uka was convinced that the video was genuine, but it was in fact a clip taken from Redacted, an American film based on the Mahmudiyah massacre.

[21] During Uka's trial, his defence lawyer described him as a non-typical violent criminal who is neither religiously motivated nor an Islamist terrorist, while the Attorney General of Germany named Uka as a single perpetrator, which was applied for a sentence of life imprisonment plus a finding of "exceptional gravity of guilt".

[22] On 10 February 2012, the Hessian State Superior Court (Oberlandesgericht Frankfurt am Main) sentenced Uka to life imprisonment for two counts of murder and three counts of attempted murder with the determination of an "exceptional gravity of guilt", which means that he will not be eligible for parole after having served fifteen years.