Luka Magnotta Arrested in Berlin Internet Cafe — While Reading About Himself

The international manhunt for the porn actor accused of killing and dismembering a man in Canada ended on June 4, 2012, in a Berlin internet cafe — where Luka Rocco Magnotta was arrested while apparently reading a website about himself.

According to a cafe employee, Magnotta was browsing news coverage of the case when the owner recognized him, stepped out, and called police. German officers arrested the 29-year-old without incident on Monday afternoon. Canada's Ministry of Public Safety confirmed the arrest; ministry spokeswoman Julie Carmichael said Canada expected "the individual responsible for these troubling acts" to "face the full force of the law."

Magnotta was accused of first-degree murder in the killing of Jun Lin, 33, a Concordia University student from China — dismembering the body and mailing parts of it, including a severed foot sent to Canada's prime minister. The gruesome details had made the case an international sensation and the manhunt one of the most followed of the year.

The end of the chase carried its own dark irony: a man who had cultivated an online persona of notoriety, caught because he couldn't stop checking his own press.

This article summarizes contemporaneous reporting from June 2012, including coverage by Canadian authorities and international wire services. It reports on charges, not findings of guilt.