A 16-year-old was shot by five submachine guns during a police operation in Dortmund and died. Criticism has been raised about the actions of the officials. What’s next?
The Bochum criminologist Prof. Thomas Feltes has criticized the police operation in Dortmund, during which a youth was shot. “Why was a submachine gun used there? That is incomprehensible at all,” said Feltes of the German Press Agency.
The submachine gun (MP) is primarily intended for killing sprees, not for use against mentally disturbed young people. The martial appearance of eleven police officers with automatic weapons makes a difference because it gives people the impression of an attack, especially if they don’t understand German.
“In such operations, a psychologist or psychiatrist should always be present,” said Feltes. The use also shows that pepper spray and tasers often do not have the desired effect. Pepper spray even has a paradoxical effect on the mentally ill: “They perceive it as an unmotivated attack and start a counterattack. It’s always the same pattern,” says Feltes.
The question is also whether the officials knew that the young person does not understand German. Such situations are best dealt with in words. “If the person concerned does not understand anything, an attack is programmed.”
The police in Dortmund’s northern part of the city, a social hotspot, are “not exactly known for their restraint,” said Feltes. He criticized the fact that the maxim “solving the problem now and immediately” was firmly anchored in the minds of the police officers. In such cases, however, it is often better to stabilize the situation and, if possible, to withdraw, said the crime researcher.
Dortmund case is far from resolved
The youth shot dead by a police officer in Dortmund, an unaccompanied refugee from Senegal, was in a psychiatric ward shortly before the crime. He went there himself because of psychological problems, said a spokesman for the Dortmund public prosecutor on Wednesday. The “image” had previously reported about it.
In the case of the 16-year-old who was killed, many other questions remain unanswered: How is it possible that a threat or an attack with a knife is answered with several shots from a submachine gun? Regardless of the Dortmund case, Frank Schniedermeier, a member of the board of the NRW police union, said knife attacks were among the most dangerous attacks on police officers: “If arteries are hit, you bleed to death within a few minutes.” According to the LKA, there were more than 50 knife attacks on police officers in NRW in 2020.
Dangerous situations often developed within seconds, said Schniedermeier. It is therefore usually not possible to retreat and turn your back – after all, you would then no longer have the offender under control. Knife attacks must be repelled at a distance. Once a perpetrator is standing next to you, you have no chance, said the police unionist. In the event of an attack, you only have fractions of a second to make a decision. If there is still time, a warning shot should be fired – otherwise you would have to shoot in such a way that the opponent was “unable to attack”, explained Schniedermeier.
Police vs. Police: How investigations should remain neutral
The officer who fired the shots is now being investigated for causing bodily harm resulting in death. If a crime is suspected by the police, the investigations are not carried out by colleagues in their own authority, but in another department “for reasons of neutrality”.
There is now a remarkable situation in North Rhine-Westphalia: At the same time, two police authorities are investigating cases in which the other authority was involved – i.e. “against each other”. The NRW Ministry of the Interior nevertheless considers a neutral investigation to be ensured.
In the case of the youth who was killed in a police operation in Dortmund on Monday and was armed with a knife, the Recklinghausen police are responsible. The 29-year-old, who shot the youth six times with a submachine gun, is listed as a suspect. The Dortmund police are investigating, in turn, because of a case in the Recklinghausen area: a 39-year-old died there on Sunday after he was said to have rioted in an apartment and put up massive resistance and was arrested by the police. But there is also evidence that he was drugged.
When asked, the NRW Ministry of the Interior explained that criminal offenses against employees in the state service would be prosecuted in certain police headquarters, the main criminal offices. However, if the accused person works there himself, another criminal investigation department is responsible “for reasons of neutrality”. There are fixed partnerships here: Recklinghausen is always responsible for Dortmund and vice versa, the same applies to Cologne and Bonn or Duisburg and Düsseldorf.
When asked whether neutrality would not be endangered if mutual responsibility continued, a spokesman for the Ministry of the Interior emphasized that the investigations were being conducted exclusively under the direction of the competent public prosecutor’s office, which was “obligated to be objective, neutral and impartial”. The regulation also guarantees that police authorities never investigate employees of their own authority. “Overall, a neutral investigation is ensured in all cases,” it said.
NRW police use MP5 submachine guns
Police in North Rhine-Westphalia use Heckler and Koch MP5 submachine guns. These are part of the equipment in all patrol cars. Schniedermeier said there are regular shooting training sessions with all the weapons used by the police.
According to statistics from Clemens Lorei, a professor specializing in the use of police firearms at the Hessian University for Public Management and Security, police officers in Germany used the weapon against people a total of 159 times in 2020. 49 of them were warning shots. That year, 15 people died as a result of police shots and 41 were injured. According to the Interior Ministry, three people died in NRW in 2021, four in 2020 and five in 2019.
A demonstration against police violence took place in Dortmund on Tuesday evening. The police said it was emotional but peaceful. Around 150 to 200, mostly young people, took part.