German police set new record for killings
A record 22 people were shot dead by German police in 2024, according to a report by the news agency dpa based on law enforcement records, more than in any other year this century.
It is more than double the total recorded in 2023, when 10 people were killed; 11 were neutralized in 2022 and eight in 2021, according to the report published on Tuesday.
According to statistics from the Civil Rights and Police publication, the 2024 fatalities may represent the highest annual total since German reunification in 1990. The previous record highs were 19 deaths in both 1995 and 1999.
Many of these incidents involved individuals in psychological distress, often armed with knives. For example, a 31-year-old woman was shot in a Munich supermarket; she’d had prior encounters with law enforcement due to mental health and drug-related issues.
On the final day of 2024, German police were involved in a fatal shooting in Grünsfeld, a small town in the southern state of Baden-Württemberg, where a 38-year-old man stole an excavator, caused extensive damage, and injured officers during a prolonged chase.
This incident occurred just days after the Magdeburg Christmas market attack on December 20, 2024, where a car was driven into a crowd, resulting in six deaths and over 200 injuries. The suspect in the Magdeburg attack, a 50-year-old Saudi doctor, was arrested at the scene.
Jochen Kopelke, head of the German Police Union (GdP), told Welt in October that the rise in fatal shootings could be linked to an increase in societal violence. He noted that officers are facing more aggressive attacks and, in escalating situations, are often forced to act decisively to neutralize threats.
Recent police statistics indicate a significant rise in violent crime in Germany, local media reported. In 2023, it reached a 15-year high, with 214,099 cases reported, marking an 8.6% increase from the previous year. The overall crime rate saw a 5.5% rise, totaling 5.94 million cases, the highest since 2016.
