“The police officer that fired the shot is devastated. He never wanted this to happen”
The two-year-old was travelling in a van with her parents and around two dozen other people along the E42 motorway. Police had be pursuing the van for tens of kilometres before the driver of the van tried to ram their police car. Initially it was reported that the girl had not died as a result of being shot.
However, it later emerged that a police bullet had caused her death. Olivier Stein of the Progress Lawyers Network who is representing the dead girl’s parents says that the officer that fired the shot has been identified but has not yet been taken in for questioning.
At Tuesday press conference a spokesperson for the Judicial Authorities told journalists that “He (the policeman) never wanted or planned this. This is a great tragedy for everyone”.
Judicial authorities want "complete clarity”
The Judicial Authorities also stressed that they want “complete clarity” about what exactly happened. “The investigation will be carried out entirely independently by the Judicial Authorities and Committee P to look at whether the policeman acted correctly”.
The Judicial Authorities also stress that the driver of the van also carries a great deal of responsibility for what happened.
"It wouldn’t have happened if the driver hadn’t driven like that”.
"He braked, he swerved… 1 police car was hit it was a very dangerous situation”.
The bus had a false Belgian number plate. There are also doubts as to whether the driver of the van can be identified due to what the judicial authorities describe as “a wall of silence” among the migrants.
The decision to take the girl to hospital without her parents was taken by the ambulance crew that attended the scene.”