Minister urges return of warning shots for armed officers

Lithuania’s interior minister, Martynas Katelynas, has called for legal changes allowing officers to fire warning shots and removing the requirement that danger be unavoidable when they use firearms, LRT reported.

“Only the circumstance of danger should remain, while the requirement of inevitability should be removed. The possibility of a warning shot should also be restored, because it is no longer provided for in the current legal framework,” Katelynas told TV3 News on Monday.

He said a warning shot into the air could serve as an intermediate measure between other special means and using a firearm as a potentially lethal weapon. It could deter a suspected offender or criminal from continuing, he said, and prevent the use of a firearm, which should remain a last resort when all other measures have failed.

Discussion of the conditions for using firearms intensified after reports of a July incident at the Kapčiamiestis border post, when about 20 foreign nationals attacked officers during a detention. The officers had to flee, and the migrants, including some who were handcuffed, escaped into Belarus.

Under the current Law on the State Border and Its Protection, officers are not allowed to fire warning shots. The law states that firearms and explosives may be used only in exceptional cases when this is unavoidably necessary and when psychological or physical force has been ineffective.

It also allows their use when there is an unavoidable danger to a person’s life or health, aviation security, border protection, or companies, facilities and property important for ensuring Lithuania’s national security, as well as other facilities protected by border guards.

Katelynas said the requirement of unavoidable danger was often assessed only retrospectively during an investigation into the use of a firearm, particularly when someone had been killed or injured.

“Investigators who assess within a few hours that there were other circumstances in which the firearm might not have been used cannot put themselves in the position of the officer who made that decision in one or two seconds,” he said.

The minister said the proposed changes would take a systemic approach covering not only border guard and police officers, but also intelligence institutions and the Special Investigation Service.

“The entire package is to be changed so that all services have clearly defined criteria for when they may use a firearm, as well as legal protections,” Katelynas said. He added that officers are currently required to protect the state and property but receive no protection, social support package or psychological counselling after using a firearm.

Katelynas said the amendments would be prepared soon and expressed hope that Parliament would approve them as quickly as possible, given the changed security situation and reality.

BNS reported that the Vilnius Regional Court is currently hearing a murder and abuse-of-office case in which a border guard is accused of killing the driver of a fleeing smuggler’s car after shooting at its wheel.

In May, the Supreme Court of Lithuania acquitted a police officer who had shot and killed a woman of murder and abuse of office. The cases have drawn significant attention among officers, while the heads of the police and border guard service have expressed support for their subordinates on trial.