Hit by a police bullet
There is no bodycam footage of the police shooting the 12-year-old
How did the deaf child get shot? NRW Interior Minister Herbert Reul explained why there was no video footage of the operation.
There is no police video footage of the police operation in Bochum, where a twelve-year-old deaf girl was seriously injured by service weapon fire. “There is no bodycam footage in this case,” North Rhine-Westphalia Interior Minister Herbert Reul (CDU) told the “Rheinische Post” in an interview. “Police officers carried out this operation to give the girl access to her medication. There is no reason to assume there was any imminent harm. But it was a prerequisite for using body cameras in the apartment,” Reul said.
The twelve-year-old was hit in the stomach during surgery on the evening of November 17 and was taken to hospital with initially life-threatening injuries. Investigators assume the girl had previously assaulted officers.
The police and prosecutors emphasized that the official weapon was only fired when the twelve year old teenager was right in front of the police officers with two knives in his hands. Shortly before, the girl’s mother was handcuffed.
Body cameras in NRW are part of that equipment
The operation was carried out because the twelve-year-old went missing from his group home in Münster and apparently went to his mother in Bochum. According to investigating authorities, four officers drove there in the middle of the night because the girl was undergoing essential treatment.
This operation could be very difficult because, according to the police, both the twelve-year-old child and his mother were deaf. According to police, it must be determined whether and how communication can be established between emergency services and the two deaf people. A sign language interpreter was not present during the operation.
Body cameras are part of police equipment in North Rhine-Westphalia, but officers must consciously turn them on during operations so they can capture footage.
dpa
