By Michael Sauerbier
Sloppiness or brazen theft? After a sport shooting by the Brandenburg police, 4,400 live cartridges were missing, Interior Minister Michael Stübgen (63, CDU) admitted. Now the prosecutor should look for it.
Can ten police officers use up 12,000 rounds of ammunition in two days? Impossible, says Brandenburg’s State Audit Office, which examined the receipt from a sports and competitive shooting event held by officials in Frankfurt (Oder). The inspectors demanded clarification from the Interior Ministry.
But Stübgen’s internal audit department found the police officers’ shooting rage to be completely normal. A consumption of 12,000 cartridges over two days of competition is already possible. But the Court of Auditors remained in its doubts. And he was right.
Brandenburg’s Interior Minister Michael Stübgen (63, CDU) considers his officials to be sloppy, but not criminal Photo: Bernd Settnik/dpa
Now the minister had to admit to the state parliament that the whereabouts of 4,400 rounds of ammunition were unclear. 3,000 small-caliber cartridges (5.6 millimeters) and 1,400 nine-millimeter bullets for police pistols are not found in the documentation.
Stübgen suspects “sloppiness” in the accounting of his officials and said: “I rule out a criminal background.” His audit revealed no evidence of this. But doubts remain.
Investigators found tens of thousands of rounds of police ammunition on a former SEK officer from Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania. The ex-elite police officer belonged to a right-wing extremist prepper network. A Brandenburg ammunition miner hoarded kilos of explosives at home.
Now the public prosecutor’s office is supposed to investigate the mysterious loss of cartridges, at the request of the ministry. The lawyers are angry because Stübgen has already given the “Schlendrian” result – and because they are only getting the case now. The shooting took place in June 2022. In January, the Court of Auditors alerted the Interior Ministry.