The police are called to an operation in a youth welfare facility in the summer of 2022 and use tear gas, tasers and finally a submachine gun against a teenager from Senegal. According to the chief prosecutor, there is no evidence that the 16-year-old, who was carrying a knife, posed a threat to officers.
In the case of the youth who was shot by the police, the Dortmund public prosecutor sees no evidence that the 16-year-old had previously posed a threat to the officers with his knife. “We have not been able to identify any self-defence or emergency aid situation on the part of the police officers,” said senior public prosecutor Carsten Dombert. Even the use of tear gas and tasers were therefore disproportionate. It was announced on Tuesday that the public prosecutor’s office had charged five police officers involved in the August 2022 operation.
As Dombert now reports, the accused have still not commented on the allegations. The most serious charge is against the 29-year-old officer who shot the youth with a submachine gun. He is accused of manslaughter. Two policewomen (28 and 31) and a policeman (32) are accused of causing dangerous bodily harm in office because of the use of tear gas or tasers. Charges were brought against the 54-year-old service group leader for inciting physical harm in office. According to Dombert, he is accused of having specified the police procedure during the operation, in particular the use of irritant gas. The police operation was disproportionate, the mildest means had not been used and was therefore illegal, said Dombert. The shooter therefore made the decision himself to use the weapon. So he should not have shot on instruction.
The police were called to a youth welfare facility on August 8, 2022, where the young refugee from Senegal is said to have initially threatened to kill himself with a knife. The operation initially ran as an intervention in a suicide attempt. Before the deadly shots were fired, the 16-year-old was shot at by police with pepper spray and tasers. One of the central questions was whether the youth with the knife had moved towards the officers. For example, North Rhine-Westphalia Interior Minister Herbert Reul promised full clarification shortly after the crime, but also spoke of an “extremely difficult situation” for the officials. After using pepper spray and tasers, the young person was “more and more excited, I would say more tense, ran more aggressively towards the police officers. And in this situation the question was: does he stab him – or do the police shoot?” He told the police at the time WDR.
In an interview with WDR today, criminologist Rafael Behr criticized Reul for “the fact that those responsible in politics always immediately and without a doubt back their police force and believe they are doing them something good. The opposite is the case.” During the operation, “a whole lot of things went wrong, not all of which were directly attributable to the police officers,” he continued to criticize. There is an “overall atmosphere in the police force that is geared towards terrorist threats and killing sprees,” and there are not enough options for de-escalation.
Julia Höller from the Greens also called for structural lessons to be drawn for police work so that exceptional psychological situations would be correctly assessed and de-escalating tactics taken into account. Dortmund police chief Gregor Lange said the operation had “damaged trust that we have to restore,” especially among people with an immigrant background. The operation “triggered deep dismay in our agency, too.” It is also in the interest of the police that a complete investigation is carried out. Like Dombert from the public prosecutor’s office, he emphasized that the presumption of innocence applies until the end of the proceedings. Disciplinary proceedings were initiated against the officers shortly after the operation. The shooter was suspended and the other four transferred within the Bureau.
