Police shoot asylum seeker in Vangen - officer seriously injured
A 27-year-old Afghan asylum seeker was killed in the city of Wangen in Baden-Württemberg after he attacked police officers with a knife during an attempt to arrest him. The police reported that the man was subject to an arrest warrant from the public prosecutor's office in Ulm due to a prison sentence issued against him following a conviction for assault.
The incident occurred when a police patrol went to the man's residence to execute an arrest warrant. According to official information from the Landeskriminalamt (LKA) in Stuttgart, the suspect attacked the officers with a knife, prompting them to fire several shots at him. Despite attempts to revive him at the scene, the man succumbed to his injuries. One officer sustained serious lacerations but is not in life-threatening danger. Investigations are still ongoing to determine the precise details of the incident, and the LKA has taken over the investigation into the police's use of firearms.
It is noted that this incident is the seventh of its kind in Baden-Württemberg since the beginning of 2025, as the state previously witnessed a similar incident in Hilzingen last April, where a man was killed while attacking the police with an axe. Another incident occurred in Schramberg, where a man was shot after pointing his weapon at police officers and refusing to drop it.
According to the Ministry of Interior, the police used their firearms against individuals in 13 cases in 2024, resulting in the deaths of three people and injuries to nine others. Such high numbers have not been recorded since 2020.
For his part, the head of the German police union in Baden-Württemberg, Ralf Köster, expressed his concern about the rising violence against police officers, saying: "Once again, a knife. Violence against us is continuously increasing." He added that politics seems unable or unwilling to take appropriate action, emphasizing that "the police are tired of official expressions of sympathy and are waiting for real action from the Minister of the Interior."