German police officers have already fatally shot significantly more people while on duty this year than in previous years, according to an analysis of police reports by dpa.
Reports indicate that 17 people have died in police shootings since January. In the majority of cases, the fatal shots were fired in situations where the officers encountered men or women who were in a distressed psychological condition or were already receiving treatment for mental illness.
Several of the people who were shot during police operations were carrying knives.
According to statistics from the specialist magazine “Bürgerrechte & Polizei” (“Civil Rights & Police”), the last time such a high number of people were shot by the police in Germany was in 1999, when 19 people were fatally shot during the course of the entire year.
Police gunshots killed 10 people in 2023, after 11 deaths in 2022 and eight deaths in 2021.
The case of a 31-year-old woman who was shot dead in a Munich supermarket made the headlines this year.
The police later announced that she had been admitted to a psychiatric ward three times by the police. She was known to the police for narcotics offences.
A 20-year-old woman died last Thursday in the central German town of Schwalmstadt. According to the police, the woman pointed an object at police officers that looked “confusingly similar” to a firearm.
Another person fatally shot by police in Germany this year was an 18-year-old Austrian who opened fire at the Israeli Consulate General in Munich and the nearby Nazi Documentation Centre on September 5.
Carmaker Audi plans to halt production at Brussels plant in February
Layoffs are not planned until the end of the year, the company said. The factory employs around 3,000 people and produces only a single Audi model, the Q8 e-tron electric SUV.
Audi has been considering closing the Brussels plant for some time and has been consulting with the works councils and trade unions for months, as required by law in Belgium.
Company management plans to complete this information and consultation process in the next two weeks.
Sales of the Q8 e-tron SUV have been shrinking, and Audi executives have said that the factory has very high logistics costs because few suppliers are located nearby.
The factory’s location between a residential area, railroad tracks, and a motorway makes expansion difficult, according to Audi.
Audi’s parent company, the Volkswagen Group, is facing a deep crisis at the flagship Volkswagen brand and has rejected the possibility of launching the production of a new vehicle model in Brussels.
Talks are still under way with a potential investor, according to Audi. The company had already spoken to more than 20 potential investors from the automotive industry without any prospect of a viable concept for the site and the employees who work there. – dpa
