Police shoot knife-carrying 41-year-old in Nowy Sącz, prosecutors probe weapon use

Shooting on Lwowska street

Police in Nowy Sącz shot a 41-year-old man on Lwowska street on Sunday, 11 October, after a taser failed to stop him from walking toward officers with a knife. Police received a report at 10:40 about an aggressive man walking through the city with a knife, and a patrol was sent to the scene, according to Katarzyna Cisło, spokeswoman for the Małopolska police. Gazeta Krakowska reported that the initial call also mentioned threats the man had directed at women, and that he wore a long coat and tall rubber boots. Officers repeatedly told him to drop the knife and to obey the law, but he did not respond to their orders. They then used a taser, which prosecutors later described as ineffective and insufficient.

What prosecutors say happened

Prosecutors said the man kept advancing with the knife after the taser had no effect, and that one officer then fired at him. Justyna Rataj-Mykietyn, spokeswoman for the regional prosecutor's office in Nowy Sącz, described the moment in these words:

This measure proved ineffective and insufficient, and the aggressive man with a knife moved toward the officers.

Police gave the man first aid immediately, and an ambulance crew took over at the scene. He was taken to hospital in Nowy Sącz, where he died despite the medical care. Prosecutors opened an investigation into active assault on police officers with a dangerous tool, the knife.

The investigation

Investigators inspected the scene under the supervision of a prosecutor and secured the service weapon, body camera recordings, CCTV footage and documentation. Ballistics experts from the forensic laboratory of the regional police in Kraków are examining the weapon and the shots, and witnesses have been questioned. All officers involved were tested for alcohol, and all were sober. Prosecutors are assessing whether the use of the service weapon was lawful, which they described as a standard procedure in cases of this kind. The officer who fired has not yet been questioned, and the prosecutor has yet to take that testimony.

Earlier record and a separate case in Bydgoszcz

Gazeta Krakowska reported that the man had a previous record for active assault on police officers, but avoided punishment because his criminal responsibility had been excluded at the time of that act, according to the Nowy Sącz prosecutors. A separate fatal police shooting took place the same Sunday in Bydgoszcz, as reported by Super Express. Police in Bydgoszcz were called around 21:00 to Stawowa street about an aggressive man who had reportedly injured himself. Bydgoszcz police spokeswoman Monika Chlebicz said he kept a knife in his hand, ignored officers' orders and at one point advanced on them with the knife. A female officer fired at him and hit him, and police were informed after 22:00 that he had died. Prosecutors in Bydgoszcz opened a case under Article 231 of the penal code, an autopsy of the 44-year-old man was ordered, and the internal affairs bureau took up the matter. The case is to be handed to another prosecutor's office to ensure impartiality.