The day after the fatal arrest, Paauw defended the actions of the police in Het Parool, saying that “an officer had been stabbed by the suspect in his vest with a knife.” According to the police, social media circulated at the time that agents had “liquidated” the German. “With his statement, Paauw wanted to counterbalance these unfounded and incorrect statements,” the police said in a statement.
However, the statement emphasizes that Paauw did not want to influence the investigation of the Public Prosecution Service with his words. And also did not want to put the German in a bad light. Paauw says he made his statement “on the basis of information that was available at the time.”
An investigation has shown that no damage has been found on the safety vest that indicates a knife stab. “However, that does not mean that the vest was not hit,” said the police.
The German arrived in Amsterdam on August 10, 2020 with a friend, but after visiting a coffee shop, he never returned to their hotel. On August 12, the friend reported him missing to the police. The man was approached by the police a day later around 4.30 pm, because he was walking around with a knife in the area of Poeldijkstraat.
The officers followed the man to a dead-end courtyard on Honselersdijkstraat. There, the man made swinging and stabbing movements with his knife in the direction of three police officers. According to the OM, two officers pulled the trigger almost simultaneously. They fired two bullets each.
Last May, the Public Prosecution Service reported that the agents acted out of emergency and are therefore not being prosecuted. Earlier that month, it was announced that the parents had filed a complaint about Paauw’s ruling.