Cops won't be prosecuted for fatal shooting in Purmerend

Three police officers involved in shooting an aggressive man to death in Purmerend in September last year, will not be prosecuted. The Public Prosecutor concluded that they were allowed to use their firearms because the suspect posed an acute threat, NOS reports.

The incident happened on September 1st last year. Three police officers responded to Westerdaay in Purmerend around 4:30 a.m. after receiving a report of a man breaking a car window. The 41-year-old man attacked one of the officers and ran off.

The officers went looking for the man, who suddenly popped out of some bushes. He ran towards them, shouting at the officers and holding a metal object above his head. Due to the darkness and the speed in which the incident happened, it was difficult to make out what the object was, according to the Prosecutor. The officers assumed it was a large knife or a sword.

The cops called to the man to stop, but he did not give any heed. A warning shot also had no effect. So the officers fired at the man. The man fell and dropped his weapon behind him, so the police officers still could not see what it was. When the officers approached him, the seriously wounded man got to his feet and again moved threateningly towards one of the officers. He again did not respond to orders to stop. When the man got close to the officer, he and a colleague fired three shots at the man. He died at the scene.

The weapon turned out to be a metal vacuum cleaner tube. 

The officers told the Rijksrecherche - the government investigation department that handles internal investigations at the police and other government institutions - that the man gave a disturbed, unpredictable and very aggressive impression and could not be reasoned with.

Based on the Rijksrecherche investigation, the Public Prosecutor concluded that because of the imminent danger, the officers did not have time to stop the man in a different way.