incident in the Ruhr area
Police officers are said to have deleted witness videos after the deadly police operation
At the beginning of August, a rioter was shot dead by the police in the Ruhr area
© Marc Gruber / 7aktuell / DPA
After a police operation against a rioter, officials in the northern Ruhr area are said to have deleted the video of a bystander. The case is explosive: the 39-year-old, against whom the operation was directed, died a few hours later.
After a police operation against a rioter who subsequently died in Oer-Erkenschwick in the Recklinghausen district, the public prosecutor’s office is investigating four officers for coercion. There was an initial suspicion that emergency services would have acted on bystanders who had filmed the police action. In at least one case, officials suspected they deleted a video on a witness’ cell phone. That meets the initial suspicion of coercion, said the Bochum public prosecutor on Sunday.
No further details were given. Neither the public prosecutor’s office nor the investigating police in Dortmund were initially available for questions.
Rioters shot dead by police in early August
The case of August 7 made headlines nationwide: the 39-year-old, who is said to have rioted in an apartment, lost consciousness during the police operation and died a few hours later in the hospital. The police had said at the time that the man had put up such massive resistance that the police had used pepper spray. A preliminary investigation into physical harm was initiated at the office against the eight police officers involved.
What caused the 39-year-old to die was still unclear after the autopsy, the public prosecutor wrote on Sunday. The man was probably under the influence of drugs.
According to the police, around 150 onlookers followed the operation, many filmed with their cell phones. “According to the current status of the investigation, there are indications that officers used could have viewed film recordings on the cell phones of the witnesses immediately after the police measures and, at least in one case, could have deleted them,” wrote the public prosecutor’s office on the suspicion of coercion by officers.
Specialist company to restore videos
The public prosecutor said that an external specialist company had been commissioned to restore the possibly deleted videos on the cell phones of the witnesses. At the same time, the investigators appealed to other witnesses of the operation to contact the Dortmund police.
The investigations into the police operation in the Recklinghausen district are being carried out by the Dortmund police for reasons of neutrality – while at the same time the Recklinghausen police are investigating the case of a 16-year-old who was shot by police in Dortmund. This crossed responsibility had recently been criticized from various sides.