Overview

• In August 2024 an officer fired three shots at a 32-year-old homeless man in a park near Düsseldorf’s main station, striking him in the back as he fled.
• No weapon was found on the man, whose supposed butterfly knife turned out to be a keychain and who could not be subdued by a Taser shot.
• On June 2 judges acquitted the officer despite ruling his actions disproportionate and attributing the error to a high-stress situation.
• Prosecutors who had sought an 11-month suspended sentence for dangerous bodily harm in office filed a revision at the Federal Court of Justice on June 5.
• The Federal Court’s review will determine if the verdict holds and could influence future rulings on police accountability in dynamic encounters.