Three cops, suspect injured in incident on Limburg highway

The transfer of a detainee from the police station in Roermond to a care institution escalated on Sunday evening and ended with three cops and the detainee injured on the A73 highway, the police said in a statement.

According to the police, the man was taken to the police station for assistance because he was displaying disturbed behavior. At the Roermond police station, it was decided that the man needed more care than officers could provide and that he should be taken to a care facility.

The man was loaded into a police car with two cops and driven away. On the A73, near Horst, the man attacked the two police officers in the car with him and managed to escape onto the highway. The officers gave chase and shots were fired. The man was injured in this. A third officer who assisted in the arrest was also injured. 

The man was taken back into custody and taken to the hospital in Nijmegen by ambulance. His condition is stable. The three officers went to a hospital in Roermond for treatment. One officer was hospitalized.

The Rijksrecherche, the department that handles internal investigation at government services like the police, is investigating the officers' use of their firearms, as is standard procedure. The Brabant Zuid-Oost police were called in to perform technical and tactical investigations in the context of objectivity.