Nienburg
Officer shot during fatal police operation – investigations are ongoing
A police patrol car speeds to the scene with its lights flashing
© Carsten Rehder / DPA
Dramatic scenes on Holy Saturday in Niendorf an der Weser: A man threatens his girlfriend, the police intervene. Shots are fired, the attacker is killed, an officer is injured – it is unclear by whom.
After a fatal police operation in a threatening situation in Nienburg an der Weser, Lower Saxony, investigators have announced further details. The 46-year-old attacker who was shot by emergency services was hit by eight bullets, they said Police and public prosecutor’s office in Verden on Tuesday evening. The man had previously attacked the officers with a knife. According to a spokeswoman, the officers’ service weapons were confiscated in order to find out who fired and how often. According to police, the investigation is ongoing.
According to the police and public prosecutor’s office, two hits in the heart and liver were “significant” and, according to the autopsy results, the shot in the heart was immediately fatal. Further investigations to reconstruct the process and check the firearms used are continuing, it said.
Man threatened girlfriend and attacked police officers
According to earlier investigators, a 45-year-old policewoman was seriously injured “as a result of the use of police firearms” during the operation in downtown Nienburg on Saturday. The officer suffered “potentially life-threatening injuries,” said a spokeswoman for the Verden police on Easter Sunday. But her life is out of danger. Exactly how the injuries occurred and which police weapon she was shot with are now being investigated. According to earlier information from the Verden public prosecutor’s office and the Verden police station, the policewoman was “seriously injured when police firearms were used.” The attacker seriously injured a police service dog with the knife.
The suspect initially threatened his girlfriend with his knife on the street. There was a major police operation that lasted for a long time. During the course of this operation, the 46-year-old then attacked the officers with the knife, whereupon the emergency services shot him. For reasons of neutrality, the police and public prosecutor’s office in Verden then took over the investigation into the incident.