The Madrid Court confirms the file of the case against four police officers who shot dead a man who attacked them with a knife

Definitive folder. The First Section of the Provincial Court of Madrid has firmly closed the homicide case against the four police officers who, on November 5, 2021, shot dead Issa M., a 44-year-old man who was walking through the streets of the Madrid district of Villaverde with a knife in his hand and who attacked one of the agents when they urged him to stop his behavior. The man died from the shots fired by the officers. The court, made up of three magistrates, considers that the actions of the police officers were proportionate to the “degree of aggressiveness and lack of reasoning” of the victim, which forced the agents to “a forceful action in defense” of the colleague who was attacked. Therefore, they conclude that the police acted in “legitimate defense.” The resolution does not allow appeal.

The case had already been filed in July by the head of the 39th Court of Instruction of Madrid, Belén Sánchez Hernández, who then also considered that the actions of the four police officers who participated in the incident were “rational and proportional to the aggression received.” in line with what the Prosecutor's Office had requested. The magistrate then ordered the dismissal of the case for all of them, but the popular prosecution, represented by the SOS Racismo Madrid Association, appealed to continue against two of the four agents, those who had fired the most shots. In its appeal, the NGO pointed out that these two police officers fired a total of 11 shots and that, although “it would have been easier to aim at areas of little harm,” since they were at a short distance from the aggressor, “all the impacts “The bullets landed in the chest with disproportionate and excessive behavior.”

In an order dated January 11 and known this Wednesday, the Provincial Court of Madrid considers, however, that “it is not possible” to establish that it was, precisely, the shots fired by these two agents that caused the death of Issa M. ., since the other two police officers, including the one who was being attacked, fired one and two shots respectively. “If the impact sites are examined, not all of them were likely to cause death and due to the number [el fallecido presentaba numerosos impactos de bala aunque solo tres fueron los causantes de la muerte] “It is not possible to determine that they were precisely a consequence of the shots fired by the agents for whom the procedure is intended to continue,” the order highlights.

In their resolution, the magistrates also focus on the circumstances in which the event occurred, with the victim “with seriously impaired intellectual and volitional faculties” walking along Andalucía Avenue, in the vicinity of a health center, “exhibiting a knife of large dimensions threatening pedestrians with it.” It was then that the agents, after receiving a call to 091, went to the scene and located Issa M. on Rocafort Street, where they asked him to stop his attitude, “lunging [este] without saying a word about one of the agents with the knife raised, which caused him to fire a shot.”

The order highlights that, despite this, the aggressor continued “in the same attitude, advancing and cornering the first agent and trying to stab him with the knife, although the agent struggles and manages to break free and run away.” The victim's attitude of running after him “with the intention” of stabbing the police officer caused, in the court's opinion, his companions to fire several shots. Issa M. fell to the ground and, despite the police's attempts to revive him while the medical services arrived, they could do nothing to save his life.

For all this, the judges consider, in line with what the Prosecutor's Office, the State Attorney's Office and the defenses proposed, that “it cannot be said that the actions of the agents were disproportionate” since, they consider that if they had not acted this way, one of them “could have been the target of the intended stabbing with risk to his life or physical integrity.” Therefore, they conclude that “the requirements of the defense of self-defense are met” and agree to the free dismissal of all of them.

After the shooting occurred, a video of the event captured by a neighbor from a balcony was spread on social networks, but the recording began at the moment of the last shot, so it did not capture the moments of the previous attack. It was then highlighted that the deceased, who lived in poverty, had mental problems and had accumulated a record of four attacks against law enforcement agents in the last two years. The SOS Racism Madrid Association released a statement three days after the event in which he considered that the police had acted disproportionately because Issa M, who was Ghanaian, was a black person and appeared as a popular accusation.

This Wednesday, after learning of the judicial decision, Police Justice (Jupol, the majority union among the agents and which has led the legal defense of the accused police officers) has published a statement in which, in addition to showing its satisfaction with the file of the cause, has demanded from the Ministry of the Interior “the urgent need to update the National Shooting Plan”, the program that establishes the practices with the weapons of the agents. “As has already been demonstrated on multiple occasions, it is not fulfilling its mission and poses a serious risk to the physical, vital and legal security of the National Police agents,” they add. The union also demands that the department update the protocol of Basic Principles of Action of the agents to the current type of crime, which, they emphasize, was written in 1986.

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