After the death of a 45-year-old man after a police operation in Königs Wusterhausen, the Brandenburg Left faction calls for clarification in the state parliament’s interior committee. “It is shocking that there has been a second death in such a short time,” said domestic policy spokeswoman Marlen Block on Sunday. It was not until March that a 34-year-old was killed in Senftenberg by shots from a police service weapon. It was striking that it was again a person in an exceptional mental situation, said Block.
As the Tagesspiegel reported exclusively on Friday, the man died in a Berlin clinic on Tuesday evening. The reason, according to doctors, is the most severe damage that the 45-year-old Bulgarian is said to have been inflicted by Brandenburg officials. Now the criminal police and the public prosecutor’s office in Berlin are investigating the cause of death. The procedure is being conducted in Berlin because the man died there. The body is to be autopsied in the next few days to determine the cause of death.
In an interview with the Tagesspiegel, Left MP Block called for police officers to be given significantly better training for operations with people with mental health problems – “all police officers who are on duty on the street”. In clinics, the staff also manage to get along with mentally disturbed people without weapons, said Block. Better training would also help police officers. The officers involved in the operations suffered “great damage” from the deaths, she emphasized.
No comment from the new police officer
Anja Penssler-Beyer, the state chairwoman of the Association of German Criminal Investigators, also called for the case to be “meticulously processed”. Until then, the police officers should not be prejudiced. “Every operation with a dead person is bad for the officers involved.” On the question of training, however, Penßler-Beyer contradicted the Left MP Block. “At the universities, a lot of value is placed on the sensitive handling of difficult assignments,” said the BDK state chair. This happens across disciplines.
Brandenburg’s new police officer Inka Gossmann-Reetz (SPD) did not want to comment on the operation in Königs Wusterhausen and the training of the officers. “No comment.”
According to the official police report, the Bulgarian had “stayed on a property without authorization” and hit a car. Then the police report says: “After being asked by police officers, the man was not ready to stop his actions. He behaved aggressively, bit and was mentally disturbed. Pepper spray was used by the police.” The man was then tied up with the help of local residents. “Immediately afterwards he fainted, the handcuffs were loosened, first aid was given and an ambulance was called,” said the South Police Department.
Vitali N. died in the Neukölln Clinic on Wednesday evening at 5:57 p.m. According to the clinic, the man must have been forced face down in muddy earth for a long time. He suffocated on the ground. “So far there hasn’t been a word in the police reports about the dramatic consequences of the operation,” criticized Left-wing MP Block. “I find that more than irritating.”
Criminology expert sees insufficient training
After the shots killed in Senftenberg, where an apparently mentally confused man allegedly attacked the police with an “axe-like object” and was subsequently shot, Block received this answer from Interior Minister Michael Stübgen (CDU) when she asked about the training of officials : “Students and trainees are also made aware of mental illnesses, with the focus on learning and training in communicative de-escalation strategies.” In the higher civil service course, there is the opportunity “to visit psychiatric facilities and get to know the patients there”.
The emeritus professor of criminology, Thomas Feltes, commented on the operation of the Brandenburg police in Königs Wusterhausen on Twitter: “Pepper spay used again unsuccessfully.” It is undisputed that the man suffocated because his head was pressed on/into the ground for a long time.” Feltes held the chair for criminology at the Ruhr University in Bochum from 2002 to 2019 and has been dealing with the subject for decades. In 2020, Feltes published a study on “Police dealing with mentally disturbed people”.
Feltes also considers the training in Germany to be inadequate. In the study he published, demands were made for “appropriate further training and structural changes in police practice”, especially since police officers also suffered from the consequences of failed operations with people with mental disorders.
