Prosecutor: police fired shots at fleeing vehicle in Pyhäntä – no crime
Police fired two shots at a fleeing vehicle on road 28 in Pyhäntä on 10 October. The prosecutor decided not to open a preliminary investigation into the matter.
Prosecutor: police acted proportionately in shooting at fleeing vehicle in Pyhäntä
The prosecutor will not open a preliminary investigation into the police use of force in Pyhäntä, iltalehti.fi reported. Police fired two shots at a fleeing vehicle on Saturday, 10 October on road 28.
The sequence of events began when police were conducting traffic surveillance in Piippola in Siikalatvaa. The driver failed to comply with a stop command and fled at high speed. Multiple patrols from Oulu and Eastern Finland participated in the pursuit – Oulu alone had five police cars involved.
The flight lasted tens of kilometres. Police unsuccessfully attempted to stop the vehicle with a spike mat before Pyhäntä.
On road 28, police deployed a new spike mat in a wooded, uninhabited area. The fleeing driver stopped a few hundred metres away, but attempted to continue the escape via the roadside verge despite a force warning.
A nearby police officer fired two shots from his service weapon at the vehicle's right front tyre. The shots did not hit the vehicle. The car continued and came to a stop voluntarily some tens of kilometres later.
According to the prosecutor, the decision to use the firearm did not come from a police officer holding a managerial rank. Nevertheless, the prosecutor considered that the force used was proportionate to the danger of the situation, and there is no reason to suspect a crime in the police actions.
Source: Google News FI — Crime (fi)