News Germany: Police fatally injure twelve-year-old girl
A twelve-year-old girl has been critically injured by one or more shots from a service weapon during a police operation in the German city of Bochum.
17.11.2025, 11:38
SDA
The deaf girl, who had been missing from a residential group for a day, had previously approached the officers with two knives at the sight of the police, the police and public prosecutor's office announced.
The girl was dependent on vital medication. After her caregiver in the residential group reported her missing on Sunday, a huge effort was made to search for her.
On Monday night, there were then indications that the twelve-year-old could be in the apartment of her mother, who is also deaf, in the Hamme district of Bochum.
Emergency services arrived at the apartment building shortly after midnight. The officers had heard noises coming from the apartment, but the door had not been opened, the investigators said. The mother only opened the door after an hour.
"During the investigation and search of the apartment, the officers encountered the 12-year-old girl, who approached the police officers with two knives in her hand," the police and public prosecutor's office added. In order to ward off an imminent attack, one of the officers used his electric impulse device, while the other fired his service weapon.
The police officers provided first aid until the emergency services arrived. An emergency doctor then took the twelve-year-old to a nearby clinic. She was operated on there and, according to the doctors' assessment, her life was in danger, said a police spokesman.
How many shots were fired by the officers is still under investigation, the spokesman said. How the communication with the deaf mother and the deaf girl took place at the scene is also still being clarified.
The twelve-year-old girl was not allowed to stay in the mother's apartment just like that. The mother had previously been deprived of custody and the right to determine the girl's place of residence, the investigators said.
