The Federal Ministry of the Interior does not want to interfere with the investigations into the fatal police shootings in Oldenburg, despite the ongoing nationwide debate. “We at the BMI are only marginally involved in this, because police matters are a matter of the respective federal state” said a ministry spokesperson on Monday in response to a request from dts news agency. This applies both to the investigations themselves and to the internal police investigations that are always conducted when police officers fire their weapons.
The spokesperson also referred to the Police Technical Institute, which maintains a statistic on police shootings. “To my knowledge, the one for 2024 is not yet available” she added. When asked about proposals, such as those from the Left and Green parties, to create an independent investigative body for such cases, the spokesperson did not comment. In most cases, the investigating authority is not the officer’s own employer. This is also the case in Oldenburg.
In the incident on April 20, 21-year-old Lorenz A. was shot multiple times in the back by police gunfire in the Oldenburg city center. Prior to this, the young black man had attacked several people with tear gas outside a disco. The autopsy revealed that all the shots hit him from behind.