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Policeman who killed suspect acquitted

By William Green

A policeman who shot and killed a suspected motorcycle thief walked free from court today (Fri) after he was acquitted of charges of grievous bodily harm resulting in death.

A court in Korneuburg, Lower Austria, had heard how the officer had followed suspect Wolfgang H. along Kellergasse in Wetzelsdorf in Lower Austria�s Mistelbach district on 8 August before firing a warning shot and then the shot that killed him.

Judge Berta Perger said the 46-year-old suspect - a father-of-two - had been a dangerous man who had eluded several police checks and that the policeman had fired at the tyre of the stolen motorcycle as the suspect drove it down an embankment but had hit him instead.

"It was a split-second decision," the judge said.

The judge ruled the policeman had not premeditatedly tried to harm the suspect.

The ruling comes after public outcry after two police officers shot and killed a 14-year-old boy and wounded a 17-year old in a supermarket.

Florian P. died from his injuries, while Roland T. was severely injured after they were shot in the dark by officers responding to a call out at a supermarket on the night of 4/5 August in Krems, Lower Austria.

The officers are now back at work but investigators have said they could face manslaughter charges.

Austrian Times

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