Lawyer has strong doubts Shot at armed twelve-year-old girl in stairwell
The operation took place in this apartment building in Bochum-Hamme. (Archive picture)
Image: dpa
NRW Interior Minister Herbert Reul commented on the incident in Bochum in which a twelve-year-old girl was shot.
Image: dpa
Interior Minister Reul now wants to seek an exchange with deaf associations.
Image: dpa
The operation took place in this apartment building in Bochum-Hamme. (Archive picture)
Image: dpa
NRW Interior Minister Herbert Reul commented on the incident in Bochum in which a twelve-year-old girl was shot.
Image: dpa
Interior Minister Reul now wants to seek an exchange with deaf associations.
Image: dpa
Why was a twelve-year-old girl shot in Bochum? Investigators describe dramatic moments - and meet with incomprehension from the girl's lawyer.
28.11.2025, 19:03
28.11.2025, 19:09
dpa
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- A twelve-year-old girl was shot by the police in Bochum.
- The police officers had feared a possible knife attack.
- According to the girl's lawyer, there was no knife attack.
According to investigators, dramatic seconds preceded the police shooting of a twelve-year-old girl in Bochum. The police officers deployed had feared a possible knife attack and had therefore taken up position in the stairwell in front of the apartment door. When the girl appeared with two knives in her hands, the shot was fired, said Chief Public Prosecutor Benjamin Kluck in a joint special meeting of the NRW Committee on Internal Affairs and the Family Committee.
However, the twelve-year-old's lawyer has doubts about the investigating authorities' account. After talking to the girl's mother and brother, he assumes that "there was no knife attack, and certainly no knife attack with immediate danger to the lives of the officers", said Simón Barrera González. He accused the state government of unilaterally siding with the police officers.
The girl was shot through the chest during the operation on the night of November 17 and her life was in danger. After two operations, the twelve-year-old is "currently awake and responsive", said North Rhine-Westphalia's Interior Minister Herbert Reul (CDU). However, a third operation would be necessary in the coming days.
Family is deaf
The officers were called out because the twelve-year-old was missing from her residential group for deaf children and young people in Münster. She had gone to her mother in Bochum, who had been deprived of custody of the girl. The girl's brother was also in the apartment - all three are deaf.
Reul said that the door was not opened for hours. The caregivers from the twelve-year-old's residential group had been in contact with the mother several times by video call.
Twelve-year-old needed vital medication
The officers were under time pressure. It was clear that the twelve-year-old had to take an important medication during the night, "because otherwise her life could be in danger", emphasized the minister.
It was only in the middle of the night at around 1.30 a.m. that the mother opened the door to the four police officers. She was "emotionally upset" and lashed out, reported senior public prosecutor Kluck. Two officers therefore brought her to the ground and restrained her.
The twelve-year-old and her 21-year-old brother had observed this from the hallway and then went into the kitchen and closed the door. Two officers had heard noises that "indicated that they were hastily opening drawers and rummaging around for knives", Kluck reported. The girl is also said to have threatened her brother in the meantime.
Police officers in position at gunpoint
The officers had positioned themselves in the stairwell - one with a Taser drawn, two with their service weapons at the ready. The twelve-year-old had approached the police officers with two large kitchen knives, the blades of which were pointed in the direction of the officers. As a result, one officer fired his service weapon and another fired the Taser. The girl fell to the ground, shot through the chest.
The police officer who fired his service weapon is being investigated for attempted manslaughter, said Kluck. The colleague who shot with the Taser is being investigated for assault in the line of duty. Neither of them had yet commented on the operation and were exercising their right to remain silent. The "Kölner Stadt-Anzeiger" had previously reported on this.
Lawyer criticizes
The girl's lawyer, Simón Barrera González, accused the state government and the investigating authorities of a lack of neutrality. "There is so much open. That's why I find it extremely worrying that the law enforcement authorities, and Minister Reul in particular, are committing themselves so early on to the narrative of an alleged self-defense situation," he said.
The police officers had not been cornered in the stairwell and had simply been able to escape the situation for the time being. "They didn't have their backs to the wall," the lawyer emphasized.
"If there really was such a rush because of the medication, why didn't the police have the medication with them? Why not just leave the medication outside the door - and then the situation can be clarified in daylight without weapons?"
Many details still unclear
The operation was probably particularly difficult because the daughter, mother and brother are deaf. The police did not have a sign language interpreter on site during the operation. Interior Minister Reul now wants to examine how the police can be better trained for such situations. An exchange with several deaf associations is planned for the coming week.
The fact that the police shot at a child is not fundamentally wrong. "The use of a firearm can be justified - even against a twelve-year-old. We all know how dangerous a knife can be," emphasized the minister. However, many details are still unclear. "Many of the questions that you, I and the public have will only be answered in the course of this investigation."