Munich protesters demand answers after police shoot 14-year-old

About 100 people demonstrated in Munich against police violence after a 14-year-old was seriously injured by a police bullet during an operation. BR reported that the largely peaceful protest was accompanied by around 50 police officers.

The demonstration began at Hohenzollernplatz, a square in Munich’s Schwabing district. Speakers criticised the police response and called for a transparent investigation into the use of firearms. Demonstrators also asked whether officers would have shot the teenager if he had been German rather than Kurdish.

Participants chanted and carried banners calling for an end to racially motivated police violence. They later marched to Belgradstraße, where the police operation took place, for a closing rally.

The assembly ended after two hours. Police said the demonstration proceeded without further incidents, apart from the use of pyrotechnics shortly before it began.

Police and family give conflicting accounts

The teenager had been carrying a softair gun in Schwabing on Tuesday evening. The weapon looked deceptively similar to a real Beretta 92 pistol with a 9-millimetre calibre. A passer-by called the emergency services.

Accounts of what happened after that differ on important points. Police said the teenager drew the softair pistol, made a movement as if loading it and then turned towards officers with the weapon raised.

The teenager’s mother said her son told her that he had raised his hands and shouted, “It is a toy, please do not shoot.” She said he had bought the weapon shortly beforehand in a shop with his pocket money and had often played with water pistols in the past.