Smothered in earth? Man (45) dies after police operation

From the BZ editorial team

After the death of a 45-year-old after a police operation in Brandenburg, the Berlin police launched a death investigation.

This was confirmed by a police spokesman in Berlin on Saturday. Previously he had “Daily Mirror” (Saturday) reported about it. The investigation is being conducted in Berlin because the man died there. The police did not give any details.

In this context, a spokesman for the Brandenburg police referred to an operation in Niederlehme (Dahme-Spreewald) on Tuesday evening, which was reported on Wednesday by the South Police Department in a press release.

Local residents called the police, police said. The man (45) stayed on a property without authorization, kicked objects and hit cars. “He behaved aggressively, bit and was mentally disturbed,” the police wrote in the statement. Police officers used pepper spray and tied up the man with the help of local residents.

“Immediately afterwards he passed out, the handcuffs were loosened, first aid was given and an ambulance was called,” said the South Police Department. The man was then taken to a hospital for medical treatment. According to the “Tagesspiegel” he died in a Berlin clinic.

The report goes on to say that the Brandenburg officials apparently presented the incident in their mission log very differently than the doctors later assessed.

The 45-year-old was already brain dead when he came to the intensive care unit in Neukölln. The doctors there had found hypoxic brain damage. In the clinic, it is assumed that the 45-year-old suffocated. According to the report, the crucial detail missing from the police report is that the doctors found soil in the airways and lungs. And there was also earth on his face when the man was admitted to the hospital.

A spokesman for the Brandenburg police confirmed to the German Press Agency on Saturday that the dead man should be autopsied to determine the cause of death in the coming week.

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