The on-site appointment at the crime scene around Leopoldstrasse in Dortmund on Friday afternoon did not seem like a simple investigative routine. Two young men demonstrated in their wrecked car to the officials of the responsible Recklinghausen homicide commission how they had narrowly escaped death.
The shooters were two police officers who had slowed down the fleeing AMG-Mercedes in the early morning of Christmas Day after a brief chase through the city center. They then got out and fired four shots at the car, one projectile penetrating the windshield. The 17-year-old driver Hamsa G. and his friend, who was one year older, were unharmed.
“It is a great miracle that my client is still alive,” said Burkhard Benecken, the driver’s lawyer, FOCUS online, “at the sight of the demolished car, the boy’s father was still shaking his knees.”
Officials are said to have fired without warning
According to his client during the reconstruction of the incidents, the following is said to have happened: Hamsa G. and his friend had arranged to meet a girl nearby. When a patrol car noticed his father’s Mercedes during the night and wanted to check it, the young driver stepped on the gas and fled. Unlike his acquaintance, Hamsa G. does not have a driver’s license. Apparently he was driven by the fear of being caught.
The police officers pursued the souped-up Mercedes. According to the driver, when they stopped him, they got out. “Then they are said to have opened fire without warning,” reports defense attorney Benecken. In panic, the two young men want to have fled again. The Mercedes finally stopped about 500 meters further. The passenger climbed out of the vehicle and threw himself on the ground. Hamsa G. was arrested in the car.
The case could become a political issue
It is still unclear why the police officers fired. Were they attacked? Was there a threatening situation? Prosecutor Henner Kruse told FOCUS online that it is currently being examined what exactly happened that night at around 2:30 a.m. He did not give any further details.
At the on-site visit, at least, the two young men had to demonstrate all the situations of their escape. The investigators moved the shot-up car back and forth in order to recreate the chronological sequences using 3D recording.
The case could again become a political issue. If it turns out that the two officers fired wrongly, the Dortmund police would have to ask new uncomfortable questions.
Not the only case
And that just under half a year after the death of 16-year-old Senegalese Mouhamed D. by a police submachine gun shooter. The public prosecutor’s office is still investigating against five emergency services at the time. There is a suspicion that the attacks with tear gas, tasers and later six shots at the young people were not proportionate.
Although the asylum seeker was holding a knife, the prosecutors doubt that the police officers were in a situation of self-defence. Although the public prosecutor’s office has not yet decided whether the five suspects will be charged, NRW Interior Minister Herbert Reul (CDU) was temporarily in distress.
If the investigators in the new case come to the conclusion that the two Dortmund police officers overzealously took up arms in the early morning of Christmas Day and risked the life of a young person, the law-and-order advocate Reul would face politically turbulent times.
Find power guzzlers at home – this is how it works
Anyone who knows which devices at home consume how much electricity can make targeted savings. Our e-paper shows which devices consume how much electricity for all common household appliances, from ovens and stoves to refrigerators and washing machines to TVs and WLAN routers. There are also a number of instant power-saving tips.
