Niedersachsens Innenministerin Daniela Behrens (SPD) denies accusations of racism against the police following the fatal shootings in Oldenburg. Behrens told the “Spiegel” that the Lower Saxony police is “neither a shooting rampage group nor is it structurally racist”. The 21-year-old Black man Lorenz A. died from three shots fired by a police officer in the night of Easter Sunday, which hit him from behind. Behrens said that the circumstances of the incident must be “lucidly reconstructed” in the framework of the investigation, “for the sake of the relatives, the public and also the police”.
Criticism that the investigation is being led by the Delmenhorst police, where the 19-year-old Qosay K. died in custody in 2021, is deemed unjustified by the Minister. The police works “unbiased and professionally”, says Behrens, “also in the tragic case of Qosay K., who collapsed in a cell and later died in the hospital, intensive investigations were carried out. There was no misconduct on the part of the police officers, which was later confirmed by the court.”
In Lower Saxony, there has been no increase in fatalities in connection with the police use of firearms in the past 20 years, says Behrens. She rejects arming patrol officers with electronic tasers and has doubts about the usefulness of additional equipment. “The most important weapon of the police is the word. The officers are trained to de-escalate. When it comes to the use of physical force, they already have a range of tools at their disposal: the pepper spray, the baton and the service weapon” says Behrens.
The body camera of the shooter was not switched on during the fatal shooting in Oldenburg. Police unions now call for automatic activation of the devices as soon as a service weapon is taken out of the holster. Behrens does not rule out equipping the police with this technology: “If there is a need for action based on the results of the investigation, we will examine what is technically feasible and meaningful to implement.