Police officer shoots man in Bierbeek, Flemish Brabant
A man was shot on Saturday around 18:30 during a police intervention in Bierbeek, in Flemish Brabant. The intervention had begun in Wallonia.
Police shooting in Bierbeek: the intervention had started on the Walloon side
A man was shot on Saturday around 18:30 during a police intervention conducted on Bevekomsestraat in Bierbeek, in the province of Flemish Brabant, near the linguistic border. The information was confirmed by Walter Vrancxk, head of the local police zone Bierbeek/Boutersem/Holsbeek/Lubbeek, according to 7sur7 Faits Divers.
According to initial details communicated, the intervention had begun in Wallonia before continuing on the Flemish side. The exact circumstances of the shooting have not yet been clarified by the authorities.
Context: a string of tragedies for Belgian police
The incident occurs in a context marked by several tragedies involving police officers in Belgium and beyond.
On 24 June 2025, Guillaume Kip, a 35-year-old highway police officer, lost his life in France after initiating a pursuit on the E411 with a vehicle suspected of transporting cannabis. When the fugitives' car came to an abrupt halt, the occupants fled on foot. Guillaume Kip set off in pursuit before being fatally struck by a third vehicle. He leaves behind his partner and two children aged 4 and 8.
The case of Maxime Pans, a Liège police officer, is also particularly striking. In 2019, during a routine check in Jupille, he was shot in the head. After a long medical struggle that left irreversible consequences, he chose euthanasia in March 2024, at the age of 38.
Thomas Monjoie and Kitty Van Nieuwenhuysen, emblematic victims
Thomas Monjoie, 29 years old, was killed with a bladed weapon while in a patrol vehicle with a colleague. The perpetrator, Yassine Mahi, 32 years old at the time, was a former inmate flagged by OCAM as a radicalised Islamist. On the morning of the attack, he had presented himself at a police station in Evere to express his hatred of police and announce his intention to carry out an attack. Directed to the psychiatric emergency unit at Saint-Luc hospital on the advice of the public prosecutor, he left the premises before being seen by a doctor. The attack took place a few hours later.
In 2007, the murder of Kitty Van Nieuwenhuysen deeply shocked Belgium. At 23 years old, the inspector had intervened during a violent home-jacking in Lot, in Flemish Brabant, perpetrated by three men. Arriving in a patrol vehicle, she fell into an ambush and was shot at close range by a Kalashnikov burst — a type of weapon that was extremely rare in such incidents at that time. The successive conditional releases of the three convicted men — the last having been released in 2024 after serving 17 years of a 30-year sentence — revived the family's pain and provoked incomprehension from police unions.
Source: 7sur7 Faits Divers