Overview
- Authorities say officers encountered the girl in her mother's Bochum apartment and fired after she allegedly advanced holding two knives, with one officer using a Taser and another discharging a service weapon.
- The child underwent emergency surgery at Bergmannsheil hospital and was described as critical but stable following the operation.
- Essen's homicide commission has taken over for neutrality, and the officer who fired has been formally notified as a suspect, according to prosecutors.
- Key facts remain under investigation, including how many shots were fired, the sequence of events, and how officers attempted to communicate with the deaf girl and her deaf mother.
- Police had been searching for the girl after she was reported missing from a Münster residential group without her vital medication; investigators note the mother had previously lost custody and residence rights, and the police union highlighted the life‑threatening risk posed by knife attacks regardless of age.