Overview
- Officers searching for a missing, medication-dependent child from a Münster group home located her after midnight at her mother’s flat in Bochum-Hamme.
- The mother, who had previously lost custody and residential rights, opened the door at about 1:30 a.m., and police say the girl advanced with two knives during the apartment search.
- One officer fired a Taser as another discharged his service weapon, striking the 12-year-old—reportedly in the abdomen, according to prosecutors—and officers provided first aid until medics arrived.
- Surgeons at Bochum’s Bergmannsheil performed an emergency operation; police say she survived the procedure and remains in critical but stable condition.
- A homicide squad and Essen police are leading the inquiry, the shooter has been formally named a suspect, and key questions on shot count, exact wound location, and communication with the deaf child and mother are still under review, while the police union underscores the lethal risk posed by knives and notes strict limits on using firearms against minors.