In the trial of a police officer who is said to have hit an arrestee four times in the face with his fist, an internal investigator from the Bavarian State Criminal Police Office has now testified about the events and assessed the situation: She had already been on patrol and had experienced some resistance A punch would be a defensive measure, she said when asked by the judge.
The fact that the police officer from the station on Beethovenstrasse is standing in front of the district court is due to the fact that the officers at the Beethoven station reported the later injured party: Dragan M. (Name changed) was checked by the police on Schillerstrasse on February 10, 2022. He is said to have insulted an officer and resisted. Therefore he was taken away for inspection. What happened there at the station was partially recorded by an officer’s body camera.
While dealing with Dragan M.’s alleged resistance in the detention cell, a police officer noticed a scene that he passed on to the internal investigators. There was a suspicion that the colleague from Beethovenstrasse hit Dragan M. four times in the face with his fist. And that the officers carried Dragan M. into the detention cell and from a distance let the tied man fall on his stomach onto the wooden cot.
In his statement in court, Pascal H. spoke of “an impulse” that he gave to the injured party’s face. Dragan M. was covered in blood afterwards, a circumstance that Pascal H. could not explain. He had received a penalty order of 90 daily rates for bodily harm in office. The police officer would therefore have had a criminal record. He appealed – and now he may have to answer for two crimes. Because Dragan M. not only got a bloody face at the Beethoven station, his finger was also broken – by the man who had also beaten him, M. said in court.
The investigator does not see an attack in the video that the police officer claims to have repelled
The investigations against the tiler Dragan M. were discontinued. He told the court that he fell unconscious after the beating and when he woke up he was lying in a cell naked except for his underwear. He has no memory of being thrown onto the wooden cot.
The internal investigator reported at the hearing that, in her opinion, falling onto the cot was “borderline”. Several officers had carried the tiler, who weighed only 60 to 70 kilos, into the cell. Pascal H. claimed that braking was not possible due to the weight. The internal investigator said, “These are strong men.”
Pascal H. testified that he gave “the impulse” because he wanted to fend off an attack by Dragan M. The internal investigator, however, stated that she did not see any attack on the video and that the injured party was “rather surprised”. The trial will continue in early November.