Cop prosecuted for shooting fleeing Romanian man

The Public Prosecutor in The Hague has decided to prosecute a police officer for a shooting incident in which a suspect was seriously injured in October last year. The Prosecutor has serious doubts about whether the officer acted correctly and has therefore decided to refer the case to the judge. The incident happened on October 6th last year near the Den Haag HS train station. A Romanian man was pulled over by the police for a check. He refused to give the officers his identification and sped off. Two motorcycle officers who were in the vicinity blocked the road and instructed the man to stopped. The man ignored them and kept driving. The officers had to jump out of the way to avoid being hit by the car. One of the motorcycle cops gave chase. The Romanian man was finally forced to stop near Stationsweg by another police vehicle barring the road. He got out of the car and fled on foot. The motorcycle cop fired two shots at the man, hitting him in the back. The Rijksrecherche, the department that handles internal investigations at the National Police, immediately lunched an investigation. This is common practice whenever a police officer fires his or her service weapon. The Rijksrecherche also spoke to witnesses, viewed camera footage and questioned the officers involved. "The police are authorized to use force in certain circumstances, but this is subject to rules." the Public Prosecutor writes on its website. "As there are serious doubts to whether these rules were complied with in this case, the Public Prosecutor has decided to proceed with criminal prosecution."