Investigation into deadly police shooting in Bremen
June 19, 2020
Police in Bremen have said an investigation is underway after a man was fatally shot during an operation in the city's Gröpelingen neighborhood. The case was referred to the public prosecutor on Friday, a day after the incident.
The victim was a 54-year-old man of Moroccan nationality, according to local media.
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The leader of Bremen's police union, Lüder Fasche, has defended the actions of the officers involved in the operation. He said the man was shot after attacking an officer with a knife, citing a video circulating online as evidence that the officers had acted appropriately.
Fasche said officers had initially tried in vain to verbally resolve what the police described as a "suspected psycho-social crisis."
The Bremen police have stressed that initial media reports that the operation was linked to an apartment eviction were false. Police also appealed to members of the public and media not to share the video.
Fasche said the incident should not be conflated with the "recent social discussions" about police violence that have followed the killing of unarmed Black man George Floyd by a white officer in the US.
The vice president of the Bremen police, Dirk Fasse, said he was concerned that an individual had died during a police operation.
"My thoughts go out to the relatives and colleagues who were exposed to this stressful situation," said Fasche.