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Germany: Fatal police shootings in 2022

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08 January 2024

For the year 2022, the official firearm usage statistics of the Conference of the Ministers of the Interior recorded a total of 54 shots fired at people. 11 individuals were killed as a result. This is three more than the previous year. Legally, these shots were classified as self-defense/emergency aid. 41 people were injured due to police firearm use.

Photo by Jonas Augustin, Unsplash

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This article was originally published in CILIP 133. Machine translation edited by Julia Link.

In mid-May, when CILIP first inquired about the current state of the statistics at the Conference of Ministers of the Interior Ministers, they were told that the data was still being processed. At that time, it was not possible to provide an expected completion date due to the preparation for the upcoming meeting of the Ministers of the Interior in Berlin (June 14-16, 2023). After the meeting's conclusion, the firearm statistics were sent at the end of June, accompanied by a note stating that inquiries before June would be pointless, as no information could be provided beforehand. [1]

The problem of mental health crises

Last year, according to CILIP's case research, three men with mental health issues were shot dead (Cases 2, 6, 9 - see table below), and in another case (case 1), there's at least a suspicion of mental health issues. The previous year, three out of eight fatalities (cases 4, 6, 7) were people in mental health crises. There are no reliable figures on mentally unwell individuals injured in police operations. This issue isn't new: CILIP has been highlighting it for some time and it has consequences for police training.

Meanwhile, there appeared to be an acknowledgment of the issue at the relevant interior ministries. One of the 95 (!) agenda items at the Conference of the Ministers of the Interior (IMK) addressed the "Handling of mentally impaired individuals with high potential for violence in connection with crimes, with and without reference to politically motivated crime." The published minutes of the meeting do not mention police firearm use; instead, they focus on "an increase in severe violent crimes committed by individuals with mental illnesses." As a result, a "pressure to act on the involved governmental structures regarding the handling of these individuals" has arisen.

The Conference of the Ministers of the Interior decided to involve the existing federal-state working group "Early Detection and Threat Management" on this issue and include health authorities. In the consultations, "suitable repressive and preventive approaches in connection with such incidents are to be developed and the need for improvement in the handling of such matters within the framework of the regular structures of the authorities, institutions and organisations involved in the federal states is to be examined." Of the seven points that the IMK would like the working group to "focus on", none mention the use of firearms or the use of force by police officers.

The IMK expects a report from the working group at their next spring meeting. Herbert Reul, the Interior Minister of North Rhine-Westphalia from the Christian Democratic Union, had already expressed caution about the proposal before the meeting, noting his ministry had been working on a similar project since 2020. Scepticism also came from the interior ministries of Baden-Württemberg and Bavaria. Given the interior ministries' tendency to redefine the problem and their discordant views, significant improvements in the near future seem unlikely.

Other issues

The killing of 16-year-old Mohamed Lamine Dramé in the courtyard of a youth welfare centre in Dortmund has attracted particular public attention (case 6). In the meantime, the public prosecutor's office has brought charges against the shooter for manslaughter.  Due to the outrage caused by this case, the ministry of the interior published a report of the events - initially classified as "for official use only".  It becomes clear here: the 16-year-old was sitting alone in the yard and threatened to commit suicide by holding a knife to his stomach. To save him from himself, the police decided to spray him in the face with an irritant so that he would rub his eyes with his hands, let go of the knife and be arrested.

However, the irritant did not have the desired effect. The assailant jumped up and "moved quickly" towards the police officers. Two shots with tasers could not stop this movement. The "security officer" armed with a submachine gun fired at the teenager, hitting him with five of the six shots fired. Lessons could be learnt from this case: Why weren't the carried body-cams used? Why did the intervention have to occur in this situation? Why was the risk of escalation accepted? Why was a submachine gun used? These are not questions for the shooter, but for the institution that allows such operational behaviour.

Other shots

In 2022, the majority of shots (15,554), were fired at dangerous, sick, or injured animals. Objects were shot at 53 times; one of these was deemed "unauthorized." There were 94 accidental discharges and nine signal shots. An astonishingly high number of seven shootings by police officers are recorded under "suicide/suicide attempts" and two "as yet unclassified cases (consequences)" are also unusual. As the statistics only contain bare figures, it is no longer possible to determine which cases these might be.

Authors: Otto Diederichs and Norbert Pütter

Table of cases

Case	Name / Age	Date	City / State	Scenario	Victim with firearm	Exchange of fire	Special operations officers	Officers injured / killed	Prepared police action
1	Unknown Man / 47 yrs.	25.02.2022	Gunzenhausen / Bavaria	The police are alerted because a man has gone on the rampage in front of his house and set it on fire. He attacks firefighters and police officers with a knife while they are extinguishing the fire. When they fail to stop him with pepper spray, the officers shoot him. The man dies in hospital.	No (knife)	No	No	No	No
2	Unknown Man / 50 yrs.	12.04.2022	Neukirchen-Vluyn / NRW	A mentally ill man goes on the rampage in his flat and throws objects out of the window. When police officers arrive, he threatens them with a butcher's knife. The officers then withdraw and call a special task force. When they enter the flat, the man attacks them. The officers shoot him and hit him in the upper body. The man dies in hospital.	No (knife)	No	Yes	No	No / Yes
3	Unknown Man / 31 yrs.	10.05.2022	Mannheim / Baden-Wü.	During a domestic dispute, a man threatens his mother and inflicts several cuts and stab wounds on himself with a knife. The police officers who arrive try to stop him with irritant gas. When this fails, an officer shoots him in the leg. The man collapses due to his previous injuries and dies on the spot.	No (knife)	No	No	No	No
4	Amin F. / 23 yrs.	02.08.2022	Frankfurt/M. / Hesse	The police are called to a hotel because a man is threatening two sex workers with a knife. As firearms were also reportedly seen, a special task force was sent to break into the hotel room of the man from Somalia. After he seriously injures the deployed police dog with a knife, the officers fire six shots at him, five of which hit him. The man is killed instantly.	No (toy gun, knife)	No	Yes	No	No
5	Jouzef Beredichevski/48 yrs.	03.08.2022	Cologne / NRW	As the man had already made threats beforehand, the bailiff tasked with evicting him calls in the police. When the officers arrive, they are attacked by the man. After the use of pepper spray is unsuccessful, two officers each fire a shot at him. Hit by both shots, the man dies on the spot.	No (knife)	No	No	No	No
6	Mouhamed L. Dramé 16 yrs.	08.08.2022	Dortmund / NRW	The police are informed by the supervisor of a youth welfare centre that a Senegalese refugee is out and about with a knife and appears "threatening". When the (11) police officers arrive, they use irritant gas and a taser. Immediately afterwards, an officer shoots with a submachine gun. Hit by five shots, the teenager dies in hospital. Five officers are under investigation and the shooter is charged with manslaughter.	No (knife)	No	No	No	No
7	Unknown Man / 23 yrs.	04.09.2022	Berlin / Berlin	The police are alerted because screams can be heard coming from a flat. When two police officers enter the flat, a man is beating a woman lying on the floor with a meat cleaver. He immediately attacks the officers with the cleaver too. One of them then fires two shots at the man, killing him. The woman also dies.	No (meat cleaver)	No	No	No	No
8	René W. / 36 yrs.	07.09.2022	Leipzig / Saxony	After a shoplifting incident followed by massive threats against the employee, the police want to search the home of the perpetrator, who is known to the police. This leads to an unspecified "threatening situation" in which at least one officer shoots the man and seriously injures him. He dies in hospital.	No (possibly knife)	No	No	No	No
9	Unknown Man / 30 yrs.	08.09.2022	Ansbach / Bavaria	In the city centre, a man already known to the police attacks passers-by at random and injures 2 with a knife. When witnesses intervene, he flees. When the police, who had been alerted in the meantime, arrived, he immediately attacked the police officers. They then fire several shots at him. The man dies fatally injured on the spot. A later search of the flat reveals evidence that the rejected asylum seeker had mental health problems.	No (knife)	No	No	No	No
10	Timo R. / 31 yrs.	24.10.2022	Zülpich / NRW	The police are alerted because a man is trying to force his way into his parents' house. He flees into the garden before the police officers arrive. When he is confronted, he attacks the police officer with a knife, whereupon her colleague fires a shot at the man. The man is killed instantly.	No (knife)	No	No	No	No
11	David W. / 40 yrs.	10.12.2022	Dresden / Saxony	After killing his mother and then trying in vain to force his way into the premises of a radio station, a man takes a woman and a child hostage in a shopping centre. When officers from the special task force storm the room in which the perpetrator has entrenched himself with his hostages, a firearm is used and the man is fatally injured. The hostages remain unharmed.	Yes	Yes	Yes	No	Yes

Note

[1] Communication from the Conference of the Ministers of the Interior on 29 June 2023.

Further reading