A 39-year-old doctor in Berlin has been detained on suspicion of four counts of manslaughter, police reported on Wednesday. The doctor, who works for a nursing service, is alleged to have killed four female patients, aged between 72 and 94, in their homes in June.
The Berlin police and public prosecutor’s office stated that the doctor, a specialist in palliative care, was brought before a magistrate after being taken into custody. He is also accused of attempting to cover up his actions by starting fires in three of the victims’ flats, although it is currently unclear how the women were killed.
One victim, an 87-year-old woman, was resuscitated by emergency services but later died in the hospital. In another case, the doctor is alleged to have killed a 76-year-old woman in her flat in the Neukölln district of Berlin, and then failed to set fire to her apartment before informing her relatives that he could not gain entry as she was not answering the doorbell.
This incident is not isolated, as another doctor in Berlin was recently convicted of similar crimes. In April, a former cardiologist at Berlin’s Charité hospital was convicted of killing two seriously ill patients with lethal overdoses in 2021 and 2022 by the Berlin Regional Court.