Overview
- Police say the child advanced on officers with two kitchen knives before one officer fired, striking her in the torso.
- Doctors operated successfully and the girl remains in intensive care in a critical but stable condition.
- Officers pulled the mother into the hallway and handcuffed her before entering the flat, according to official statements.
- The girl had fled a residential care group and was being sought because she relies on medication, investigators said.
- Essen police’s homicide commission and the Bochum public prosecutor are leading the probe, with examinations of the service weapon, bullet path, firing distance, and any Taser use still pending; preliminary reporting points to a single shot.