Fatal police violence in Oldenburg (Germany)
On April 20, 2025, there was allegedly an altercation outside a bar in Oldenburg in which Lorenz, who belonged to the BPoC community, allegedly used an irritant sprayer. He then fled and when the police came across him, he allegedly approached them in a "threatening" manner. He was then shot several times, whereupon he died.
The autopsy revealed that Lorenz was only shot from behind, including in the head. Shots that hit a victim of police violence from behind cannot be reconciled with a claim of self-defense at first or second glance. Apparently Lorenz was walking away from the person using the firearm and not "threatening" him.
A look back to the 90s
Among other things, the case is reminiscent of the shooting of a Greek citizen who was shot in the back by a Bavarian policewoman in Nuremberg on October 4, 1996. She claimed to have seen a gun, but none was found. The following year, she was sentenced by the district court to a small fine of 4,000 DM for "putative self-defense", i.e. a delusional assumption of self-defense. I mention this case of lethal police violence because it makes the standards by which the justice system measures itself particularly clear. Because two years later, a (different) Bavarian district court sent the singer-songwriter Hans Söllner a penalty order for DM 120,000 (no, the comma hasn't slipped) because he is said to have violated the honor of the then Bavarian Interior Minister Beckstein.
Call for a demonstration in Oldenburg
A demonstration is now being called for Friday, April 25, 2025 in Oldenburg to commemorate the death of 21-year-old Lorenz as a result of police fatal shots.
