Case against police officer dropped after fatal shot
Published: Monday, Mar 11th 2024, 09:50
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An Aargau cantonal police officer will not be legally prosecuted after fatally shooting a 68-year-old man during an operation in Suhr in 2020. The public prosecutor's office concluded in its investigation that the officer had acted in self-defense. It discontinued the proceedings.
The use of the firearm was proportionate, the Aargau public prosecutor's office announced on Monday. The police officer who was attacked had no other choice in what was a life-threatening situation for him. The statements of witnesses as well as the autopsy and the physical evidence would provide a consistent picture.
The incident took place in November 2020. At 10.15 p.m. on a Monday, the police received an emergency call that a man armed with a knife was threatening to commit suicide. The police officers - two officers from the regional police and two from the cantonal police - found the man near his home.
The man had not shown any willingness to talk and had not responded to the officers' attempts to de-escalate the situation, the senior public prosecutor's office now wrote. A short time later, the man attacked the officers with a knife.
Five shots fired from a police weapon
A cantonal police officer fired five shots, the authorities announced after the incident. The 68-year-old died at the scene.
Following the fatal shooting, the chief public prosecutor's office in Aargau launched an investigation. When the police fire a shot, it is examined ex officio whether it is proportionate. The investigation was conducted by an extraordinary public prosecutor from the canton of Lucerne.
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