The evening before Christmas Eve, the police were alerted to an apartment dispute in Storebro in Vimmerby municipality. When the patrol arrived at the scene, they stated that they heard what they perceived to be a gunshot from the apartment, and they therefore took out their service weapons.
When the apartment door was opened, a man armed with an ax came towards them and that’s when the first shot of four was fired, according to the investigation. The first shot hit the man in the leg and, according to the coroner’s statement, it was the injury that then caused the man to bleed to death. Two shots missed, and one hit superficially in the stomach.
Emergency protection
Now the Special Prosecutor’s Chamber has investigated the case and concluded that the police officer who fired the shot used his right of self-defense, and that the violence he used was not “clearly unjustifiable”. The assessment is also that the police had the right to shoot the man to arrest him, as he could be suspected of attempted murder or serious assault.
Dressing on the wrong leg
The investigation also concerned misconduct against the other police officer who put a tourniquet on the wrong leg. But neither was it criminal according to the prosecutor, who believes that the situation was such that it could not be assessed as “reprehensible negligence”.
In the tumult, the now-deceased man is said to have also thrown the ax at the head of one of the policemen, and he was slightly injured.
