Prosecutors find Aras officers acted lawfully in fatal shooting

LRT reports that prosecutors have found officers from the Aras antiterrorist operations unit acted lawfully when they shot a man in Anykščiai district in June. The Panevėžys Regional Prosecutor’s Office also closed a pretrial investigation into the man’s alleged illegal possession of a firearm and resistance to officers because he had died.

A prosecutor made the decision on October 21 after reviewing the evidence, the office said. Investigators found that the owner of the homestead had illegally kept ammunition and the hunting rifle he used to fire at officers. He had previously been a hunter, but his firearms permit had expired more than a decade earlier.

The investigation found that Aras officers used their service firearms lawfully and justifiably to defend themselves against a real threat to their lives and health. Police officers had first arrived at the homestead, where the man continued to act aggressively, refused to hand over his rifle and fired it. Aras officers repeatedly identified themselves as police and ordered him to surrender the weapon. He refused and shot at them before they returned fire.

The man, born in 1951, was shot in Sviesteliškis village after threatening relatives in the yard with an illegally held firearm, BNS reported. Relatives and neighbours had noticed that his behaviour had been unusual for some time. He had previously been taken to hospital over a possible mental health disorder but refused treatment. Police had earlier seized one illegally held hunting rifle from him, and found no other weapons at the time.