- Law enforcement officers engage in gunfire against suspected assailants in Recklinghausen.
In a hostile encounter at Recklinghausen, a suspected knife assault suspect was fatally shot by law enforcement. As per initial reports, a 33-year-old individual was causing chaos in an apartment complex on Wednesday evening, as confirmed by Dortmund police and the Bochum prosecutor's office. Witnesses said he carried a knife as well.
Upon their arrival, the officers encountered a potentially harmful situation. As a result, a police officer discharged their weapon towards the 33-year-old individual, resulting in fatal injuries.
A Dortmund police representative mentioned that the identities of the officers involved and the one who fired the shot are yet to be identified. The Dortmund homicide unit now oversees the investigation for impartiality reasons.
The previous day, law enforcement officers had fatally shot a suspected knife-wielding aggressor in Moers, Lower Rhine. According to the Kleve prosecutor's office, the 26-year-old German man appeared to have some mental health issues and, based on initial investigations, charged at the police officers with two knives in hand. Consequently, the officers responded by shooting and killing the individual. Prior to this, emergency calls reported multiple instances of the man attacking and threatening bystanders.
This latest incident in Recklinghausen occurred five days since the suspected Islamist attack in Solingen, which led to three fatalities. At a city festival on Friday evening, a knife-wielding attacker slain three people and injured eight others. The primary suspect, aged 26, is a Syrian male in custody.
NRW Interior Minister eager to act promptly
NRW Interior Minister Herbert Reul (CDU) introduced a ten-step immediate action plan in Düsseldorf on Wednesday to combat knife violence. According to the latest data, knife-related incidents jumped by approximately 43% in the public spaces of NRW last year, totaling 3,540 instances.
Simultaneously to Reul's proposal presentation, Recklinghausen police arrested a 49-year-old suspect in the early hours of the morning. He is suspected of injuring a 53-year-old man in the apartment building lobby using a knife. The weapon was seized shortly afterwards, and the victim was transported to a hospital via ambulance.
The 33-year-old individual involved in the incident at Recklinghausen hails from North Rhine-Westphalia, just like the 26-year-old man from Moers who was fatally shot by police the previous day.
Despite the rising incidences of knife violence in North Rhine-Westphalia, with over 3,500 incidents reported last year, NRW Interior Minister Herbert Reul has introduced a ten-step plan to combat the issue.
