Der Täter flieht vom Tatort.

Because der Täter is the subject of the sentence — the person doing the action.

• der Täter = nominative masculine singular
• den Täter = accusative masculine singular

In Der Täter flieht vom Tatort, the criminal is the one who flees, so German uses the nominative case.

Flieht is the 3rd person singular form of the verb fliehen (to flee).

The present-tense forms are:

• ich fliehe
• du fliehst
• er/sie/es flieht
• wir fliehen
• ihr flieht
• sie/Sie fliehen

So with der Täter (he / the perpetrator), the correct form is flieht.

It is mostly regular in its endings, but it has a vowel change in the present tense:

• ich fliehe
• du fliehst
• er flieht

This kind of change is common in German strong verbs. So learners often remember it as a verb with an ie → ie / ieh pattern in the singular forms.

Its past forms are also irregular:

• Präteritum: floh
• Partizip II: geflohen

Example:

• Der Täter ist geflohen.

Vom is a contraction of von dem.

• von = from
• dem = the (dative masculine/neuter)

So:

• vom Tatort = von dem Tatort

In normal German, vom is much more natural than saying von dem here.

Because the preposition von always takes the dative case.

So:

• nominative: der Tatort
• dative: dem Tatort

That is why:

• vom Tatort = von dem Tatort

This is a very important pattern:

• von dem Bahnhof → vom Bahnhof
• von dem Fenster → vom Fenster

German usually uses von here because the idea is away from the location / from the scene, not necessarily out of the inside of something.

• vom Tatort fliehen = flee from the scene
• aus dem Haus fliehen = flee out of the house

So aus often emphasizes movement from inside something, while von can mean movement away from a place more generally.

Because a Tatort is a scene/location, vom Tatort sounds natural.

German very often creates compound nouns, and Tatort is one of them:

• Tat = deed, act, crime
• Ort = place

So Tatort literally means something like crime place or place of the act, which in English is usually crime scene.

German compounds are normally written as one word, which is completely standard:

• Bahnhof = train station
• Krankenhaus = hospital
• Tatort = crime scene

Täter is masculine:

• der Täter

The feminine form is:

• die Täterin

Plural:

• die Täter = male or mixed plural
• die Täterinnen = female plural

So you could also say:

• Die Täterin flieht vom Tatort.

The plural is:

• der Tatort = the crime scene
• die Tatorte = the crime scenes

Example:

• Die Polizei untersucht mehrere Tatorte.

Yes, it is grammatically correct, because vom is simply the contraction of von dem.

But in normal German, vom Tatort is much more natural and idiomatic.

So:

• Der Täter flieht vom Tatort. ✅ natural
• Der Täter flieht von dem Tatort. ✅ correct, but less natural

Because German main clauses normally follow the V2 rule (verb-second).

In this sentence:

• Der Täter = position 1
• flieht = position 2
• vom Tatort = rest of the sentence

So the finite verb flieht must come in the second slot.

You could also change the word order and still keep the verb second:

• Vom Tatort flieht der Täter.

That is grammatical, but it sounds more marked or literary. The normal neutral order is:

• Der Täter flieht vom Tatort.

Not exactly.

• fliehen = to flee, escape, run away from danger or pursuit
• rennen = to run
• weglaufen = to run away / run off

Fliehen often sounds more formal and strongly suggests escape.

So in this sentence, flieht is a very good choice because it fits the context of a criminal escaping the scene.

Compare:

• Der Täter flieht vom Tatort. = The perpetrator flees the scene.
• Der Täter rennt vom Tatort weg. = The perpetrator runs away from the scene.

Both are possible, but flieht sounds more like news or police language.

It is pronounced approximately like fleet in English, but with a clear German t at the end.

A rough guide:

• flieht → fleet

And Tatort is roughly:

• TAHT-ort

with the stress on the first syllable: TA-tort.

The r in German may sound different depending on accent, but learners do not need to worry too much at first.

Yes. Common past-tense versions would be:

• Der Täter floh vom Tatort.
  This is the Präteritum and is common in written narration or news style.

• Der Täter ist vom Tatort geflohen.
  This is the Perfekt and is very common in spoken German.

Both mean that the fleeing happened in the past.