“Mouhamed, put the knife away!”

It is the 16th day of the trial for the fatal operation in the summer of 2022, in which 16-year-old Senegalese Mouhamed Dramé was shot dead. The migrant is said to have run at the officers with a knife. Since December, five of them have had to answer to a jury for manslaughter, among other things.

This Thursday morning, the Dortmund Regional Court will learn more about the life of the Senegalese man and his time after his entry into the country.

On August 8, 2022, Dramé was leaning against a wall in the courtyard of a youth facility in northern Dortmund and pressed a knife with a 20-centimeter-long blade against his stomach. He was apparently harboring suicidal thoughts. For the police, it was a “momentary situation”: They feared that Dramé could injure himself in a life-threatening manner at any moment.

The Senegalese man refused to be spoken to, neither by social workers nor by plainclothes police officers, and just stared straight ahead. Witnesses unanimously confirmed this during the trial. First, a policewoman used pepper spray. Then the situation became more hectic, Dramé jumped up and apparently ran at the officers with the knife. Two of them used tasers, and the security guard shot Dramé. The police officers said the situation was life-threatening for them.

Could the operation have been prevented if Dramé had been treated for his suicidal thoughts? And did the psychotherapist who examined him in a clinic make a misjudgment?

One day before the fatal operation, Dramé had run away from the youth facility where he had been staying for about a week. A social worker explained during the trial that the Senegalese man did not feel comfortable in Dortmund and was homesick. Ultimately, the young migrant secretly left the youth facility and sought help from the Dortmund police station at the North Station.

He wanted to go to a clinic and made cutting movements on his forearm. This was reported by a policewoman in court. He was then taken from the station in an ambulance to the LWL Clinic, a psychiatric facility. The next morning, Andrea W., a psychotherapist, examined Dramé and was asked to assess whether he could be a danger to himself or others.

On this day of the trial, the 60-year-old doctor is sitting in the witness chair in the courtroom. She is concentrating as she reads from her notes how her hour-long conversation with the migrant went. At the time, she had called in an interpreter who translated Dramé’s statements from French.

W. initially explains that her statement and the release from her obligation to maintain confidentiality were in Dramé’s interest because his family was so important to him. However, in conversation with her – as when he entered Germany – he had said that he was an orphan. After his death, however, it emerged that Dramé’s parents and his siblings lived in Senegal.

The family is appearing as co-plaintiffs in the trial; Dramé’s brothers have been taking part in the proceedings for several months. It is unclear when W. found out about the family’s existence. But at the latest on this day of the trial, before the start of which she spoke to the defense attorney Lisa Grüter in the courtroom corridor. The attorney is representing the family in the co-plaintiff.

On the previous day of the trial, presiding judge Thomas Kelm admonished the brothers for making video recordings of the accused police officers. Grüter replied that she had already discussed the incident with her clients; they had simply never been in a German court before.

Andrea W. explains that she experienced Dramé as “mature and autonomous”. He was very “cooperative” and explained that he was no longer in a crisis. The young migrant wanted to return to his youth facility and, in the long term, to return to his homeland.

According to the indictment, which WELT has seen, the preliminary medical report states that Dramé was diagnosed with a “severe depressive episode without psychotic symptoms”. At the time of his release, however, “there were definitely remitted (diminishing) suicidal intentions”. The psychotherapist was unable to determine any acute danger to himself or others. Nevertheless, at Dramé’s request, she informed the youth facility that he should not be alone if possible because “flashbacks” (memories of traumatic experiences, ed.) could then occur. After the conversation, Dramé took a taxi back to the facility. One day later, the police were confronted with the migrant who was apparently at risk of suicide.

Criminal defense attorney Michael Emde, who represents the head of operations Thorsten H., asks W. whether she had thought about it, whether she had made any mistakes in her assessment. And whether she would conclude that she had “subjectively done the best she could,” but that this did not turn out to be the right thing. The doctor does not want to comment on this.

On this day of the trial, something else emerged: Dramé had already been fiddling around with a knife in his room at the youth facility shortly before the police operation. This was stated by an employee of the Rhein-Pfalz district youth welfare office.

She had looked after Dramé before he came to Dortmund on August 1, 2022. Before that, he lived in accommodation in Zornheim (Rhineland-Palatinate). Due to the pandemic, she only met Dramé in person once, the witness says. But they spoke regularly via video call. He had “gone missing several times” and was then brought back to his accommodation by patrol officers.

According to WELT information, an investigation into sexual harassment was underway against Dramé at this time: In July 2022, he is said to have followed and harassed a woman near Mainz Central Station and demanded sex in exchange for a few coins. This investigation shows that the Senegalese man apparently spoke broken German. This is how the alleged victim described it.

Dramé also went to Dortmund during his “departures,” says the youth welfare office employee. He was a BVB fan and “danced” when he found out he would be housed in the city. But then he changed, met people she didn’t know and often withdrew.

Shortly before his death, she spoke to him. During the phone call, she suddenly heard a social worker telling Dramé: “Mouhamed, put that away!” He was already sitting in his room with a knife.