Overview

• The incident occurred Saturday afternoon at Gran Canaria Airport, where an 18-year-old Gambian allegedly threatened holidaymakers with a knife and assaulted a taxi driver.
• Spanish National Police officers fired five shots, including one to the neck, after the teenager reportedly lunged at them despite verbal warnings to desist.
• The Canary Islands High Court of Justice is actively reviewing multi-angle surveillance footage to reconstruct the events and evaluate the proportionality of the officers' actions.
• The teenager had attempted to board a flight to Gambia earlier but was turned away due to an invalid ticket, leading to the confrontation at the airport terminal.
• Police union Jupol has defended the officers’ response as appropriate under Spanish law, which permits the use of lethal force only in cases of direct and immediate threats.