Legal experts are questioning why a 24-year-old man who was shot in the leg by police in Haderslev was not brought before a judge or held in pre-trial detention.
Sunday’s car chase through Haderslev ended with officers shooting the 24-year-old man in the leg, Avisen Danmark reports. South and South Jutland Police subsequently stated that the initial investigation did not provide sufficient grounds to bring the man before a judge with a request for pre-trial detention.
Defense attorney Stephan Ravn Berg of Berg Advokater told JydskeVestkysten that he finds the situation puzzling. He noted that a suspect must be presented to a judge within 24 hours, and that release follows if detention is not sought. Police do not fire their weapons simply because someone tries to flee, he added.
According to Berg, shooting serves to avert danger, typically when the lives of officers or others are at risk. He described it as striking that police shot and hit a man, and then did not want him held. He stressed that his reasoning is speculation, but said that as an experienced defense attorney he is surprised, since firing at a person carries the risk of killing him.
Lene Wacher Lentz, associate professor of criminal law at the Department of Law at Aalborg University, expressed similar surprise. She pointed to the Danish Police Act, which permits firearms only in defined situations. These include averting a started or imminent dangerous attack on a person, and averting imminent danger to life or serious injury.
Lentz said that pursuing a suspect, drawing a weapon and firing implies a reasoned suspicion, for example that the man posed a danger to officers or others. She is also critical of the police communication in the case and misses an explanation of why officers fired. Without such an explanation, she said, observers risk assuming that a mistake was made.
What police have confirmed
Syd- og Sønderjyllands Politi stated that a 24-year-old man from Funen was pursued on Sunday morning, August 23, 2026. The chase continued into the South and South Jutland police district, where the car was stopped in Haderslev. Warning shots and shots were fired by officers from Southeast Jutland Police, and the man was hit in the leg.
Per the same police statement, the 24-year-old was taken to the hospital and was out of danger. Two larger areas in Haderslev were cordoned off for investigation, and the case was handed to the Independent Police Complaints Authority. That body must assess whether the rules on use of force were followed.
TV 2 reported that it has not been disclosed why police were pursuing the 24-year-old. Ekstra Bladet reported that the shots were fired by officers from Southeast Jutland Police, and that the complaints authority has opened an investigation. JydskeVestkysten reported that police on Sunday midday closed Moltrup Landevej near the E45 motorway during the operation.
