Video: Man shot by police still in coma

A 41-old-man was kept in a medically induced coma after he was shot by the police in Eindhoven on Saturday.

The police responded to a house in Eindhoven after reports of domestic violence. At the scene they found the suspect in front of a house with a broken window. The man fiercely resisted arrest and did not respond to the officers' orders, pepper spray or batons, according to the police.

The suspect started threatening the officers. He charged one of them and pushed him to the ground. According to the police, he had a sharp object on him. The other officer drew his service weapon and fired shots at the suspect at close range. The severely injured suspect was taken to the hospital.

According to Hans Schoones of police union ANPV, a video of the incident clearly shows that the officer acted in defense of his colleague. "If I look at the film and if there was a stabbing weapon, you can say that the officers were directly threatened with serious injury. Then self-defense applies." he said to newspaper AD. Schoones added that "no colleague at the police draws his weapon to shoot at people for the fun of it". If the officers were equipped with tasers, like the union has been advocating for years, then there would have been no need to draw a weapon on Saturday, he said.

The suspect, Rupert L., is being kept in a medically induced coma in the Catharina Hospital, but he is out of danger, his lawyer confirmed to Omroep Brabant on Sunday. His situation is still worrisome, because the bullet can not be surgically removed. "The bullet was also fired at close range and therefore had an enormous impact on his body. My client lost a lot of blood."