After unsuccessfully trying to enter the synagogue in Halle during the Jewish holiday of Yom Kippur, the attacker, 27-year-old Stephan Balliet, fatally shot two people nearby and later injured two others.

On 10 November 2019, Balliet confessed to the charges before an investigative judge, and in December 2020, he was sentenced to life imprisonment with subsequent preventive detention.

Nevertheless, the state police of Saxony-Anhalt was not present and carried out no extra security precautions at the Halle synagogue for Yom Kippur in 2019.

[1] The attack started around noon,[2] on the Jewish holy day of Yom Kippur, at the synagogue in the Paulusviertel neighborhood of Halle.

"[5] In the livestream, Balliet denied the Holocaust and claimed feminism led to fewer births, leading to mass immigration; he blamed "the Jew" for those issues.

[14][15] A female passer-by was shot several times and killed near the entrance to the Jewish cemetery next to the synagogue, after reprimanding Balliet for making noise.

[20] Authorities said they were dealing with a "rampage situation", activated the Public Alert System Katwarn, and advised the local community to stay at home and closed the city's train station.

[34] Later in the afternoon, Saxony-Anhalt's state minister of the interior Holger Stahlknecht declared that there was only one attacker, who had been arrested, and that it was being investigated whether the man had been part of a social environment or networks.

[34] Security sources said the then-unidentified suspect was a German national who had no prior criminal history, and that the indications of a right-wing extremist background became stronger.

[3] Born 10 January 1992,[42] he grew up in Saxony-Anhalt and learned to handle weapons during his time in the German armed forces, having done his six-month military service in a Panzergrenadier battalion as an 18-year-old.

[47][48][49] In addition to the livestream, Balliet left a manifesto, which was discovered by The International Centre for the Study of Radicalisation and Political Violence in London.

[15] The manifesto, steeped in antisemitic and neo-Nazi messages, contained photos and descriptions of his homemade weapons arsenal and information about his intentions.

[52] Der Spiegel described these boards as places where users "can dive into pictures and cynical jokes and anonymously post ultra-radical views", including misogynistic, Islamophobic and antisemitic content.

On Meguca Balliet wrote that he had made DIY weapons in recent years using a 3D printer and that anyone who wanted to could watch him in a "live test" via a link to his live-stream.

[43][52] A psychological assessment after the shooting described him as having a complex personality disorder with autistic traits, but that he was aware and morally responsible for his actions.

[54] At the event commemorating the 30th anniversary of the peaceful revolution in Leipzig, German President Frank-Walter Steinmeier called for solidarity with fellow citizens who were Jewish.

Chancellor Angela Merkel also offered her condolences to the families of the victims and took part in a night vigil in front of Berlin's New Synagogue.

[55] The members of the European Parliament stood for a minute of silence on the day of the attack to honour the victims and send condolences to the families.

[57] Josef Schuster, president of the Central Council of Jews in Germany, told TV station Das Erste that on the day of the attack there were no police patrols close to the Jewish facility in Halle.

[59] The day after the attack, Spiegel Online published an article citing political scientist Matthias Quent [de], entitled: "The lone offender, who was not alone."

Quent claimed that the perpetrator was part of a large virtual network, and that the fact that he streamed the act live and spoke in English displays the importance of this far-right "Human Haters International" for him.

Maier said that Höcke and his party Alternative for Germany (AfD) were responsible for attacks like this, while they would be "moral arsonists", feeding antisemitic resentments.

[64] The ruling Islamist political party and military organization of the Gaza Strip, Hamas, denounced the shooting stating it "poses a danger for all people and that terrorism has no religion or is not restricted to a single nation.