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Flowers and candles near a youth welfare facility in whose courtyard a 16-year-old died during a police operation
Photo: Dieter Menne / dpa
After the deadly shots in the north of Dortmund on August 8, the Dortmund public prosecutor's office is now investigating a total of five of the twelve officers involved in the operation.
In addition to the police officer who, as a so-called security shooter, shot a 16-year-old Senegalese with a submachine gun, investigations are now being carried out into a policewoman who sprayed the youth with irritants and two other officers who used tasers.
This also applies to the head of operations, who is being investigated for, among other things, "instigating dangerous bodily harm in office".
This emerges from a letter from the Ministry of the Interior, which is available to SPIEGEL.
16-year-old Mouhamed D. was killed in a police operation in Dortmund on August 8th.
D. was a resident of a youth welfare facility and had only been in town for a week.
The teenager had held a knife to his stomach in the courtyard of the facility in Dortmund's Nordstadt.
Caregivers then called the police, and the operation was classified as a suicide attempt.
The officials are said to have initially tried to speak to D.
According to the report from the Ministry of the Interior, it has only been possible to determine that the dead man was spoken to in German and Spanish.
"The investigation did not show that he was asked to put down the knife."
D. had been brought to Dortmund from Rhineland-Palatinate at his own request and accommodated there in the youth welfare facility.
According to the head of the facility, Friedhelm Evermann, it was known that the young person was traumatized.
In a handover report from Rhineland-Palatinate dated June 22, 2022, which SPIEGEL was able to see, it says, among other things: »The young person urgently needs to be connected to a therapist.
He himself states that he also wants to seek therapeutic help.
Due to the age and the severe traumatization, we recommend accommodation in a therapeutic residential group.«
On the Saturday evening before the deadly shots, D. had been reported missing by the facility.
After a brief stay in a psychiatric hospital, the teenager was brought back to the facility on Sunday.
According to Evermann, he behaved normally here on Sunday and also in the first half of Monday and withdrew from time to time.
The situation escalated on Monday, D. held a larger knife to his stomach and was also unresponsive to the supervisors.
The police were then alerted at 4:25 p.m.
Various questions are still open
According to the current state of investigation, tear gas was initially used after the failed contact attempt, D. was supposed to drop the knife as a result.
Apparently he didn't do that, and two officers tried to incapacitate him with Tasers.
The first taser hit only one of two projectiles.
Although both projectiles hit the second taser, according to the present paper, "the arrow electrodes did not spread sufficiently to produce neuromuscular incapacitation."
D. continued to hold the knife in his hand, although "it has not yet been conclusively clarified how exactly he wielded it."
According to the document, it is also unclear whether and how far the victim moved after the taser was used.
After the second taser failed to incapacitate D., the security shooter, equipped with a submachine gun, fired six shots.
Contrary to previous reports, D. was hit by four bullets and died shortly afterwards in the trauma room of a Dortmund clinic.
The shooter was initially investigated on suspicion of bodily harm resulting in death.
It is currently being examined whether the investigation into suspected manslaughter against the 29-year-old will be expanded.
All five officials have remained silent so far.
Interior Minister Herbert Reul (CDU) said: “The fact that the investigations are now also related to four other officers and that the suspicion of the shooter could possibly increase, creates a new situation.” But it also shows that a close look is being taken.
“At the same time, this process is not over yet – so far it has been an initial suspicion,” Reul continued.
The question of whether police officers behaved correctly or incorrectly in the specific situation will ultimately be decided by the judiciary.
The Dortmund police announced in the evening that disciplinary proceedings had been initiated against the five officers who were being investigated.
An official had been temporarily suspended from duty.
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