A youth is shot dead by the police. The case caused a lot of consternation. After a few weeks of investigations, it becomes clear that the allegations against the shooter are more serious than initially assumed.
A good three weeks after the deadly shot at a 16-year-old Senegalese refugee by a police commissioner, the Dortmund public prosecutor’s office sent a new investigation report to the NRW Ministry of the Interior. As FOCUS learned online, prosecutors are checking whether they are increasing the criminal charge of manslaughter against the 29-year-old shooter.
In addition, further proceedings were initiated against four officials. These are emergency services who wanted to keep the youth Mouhamed D. from committing suicide with a knife using tear gas. Furthermore, the suspicion of being an accessory to dangerous bodily harm in the office is directed against two police officers who unsuccessfully used tasers when the later victim ran towards them with his knife. The head of operations is also being investigated for inciting dangerous bodily harm in office.
The service group leader had given the order for the ineffective pepper attack on the immigrant. When he got out of his temporary agony and approached the twelve police officers deployed with his knife, the chief of operations had assigned security guards to render the delinquent incapacitated in an emergency. The accused police officers have so far exercised their right to remain silent.
According to the current status, the 16-year-old ran towards the officers with the knife. The police officer fired his submachine gun six times. So far it has been said that five shots hit the youngster in the face, forearm, stomach and two times in the shoulder. According to the autopsy, he was hit four times. He died later in hospital.
Several aspects of the mission caused criticism. It was about the fact that the police officers’ body cams were not switched on. The reason: The filming of “highly personal circumstances” in a suicide mission is not allowed. And when the situation changed, according to the officials, the situation became so stressful that nobody thought about the body cam. The fact that several shots were fired from a submachine gun at an apparently suicidal youth also caused consternation. Since July 2018, two MP5s have been part of the equipment in every radio patrol car in North Rhine-Westphalia. Questions also raised that the 16-year-old had been in a psychiatric ward shortly before his death.
There were also allegations of police violence, with particular emphasis on the fact that the police shot a black youth. In Dortmund there were demonstrations of the left spectrum and the African community. According to the prosecutor, there was no evidence that skin color played a role in the operation.
