The shooting happened during “Marshal Power,” a large-scale defense exercise involving several hundred soldiers across 12 Bavarian districts. The Bundeswehr said the drill was meant to test coordination between soldiers, police, firefighters and rescue services in a mock national defense scenario.
According to Bild, the Bundeswehr’s military police may have fired training blanks at the responding officers, apparently mistaking them for part of the ongoing drill. The police, unaware of the exercise, allegedly returned fire with live ammunition, injuring the soldier.
The police confirmed that the local units had not been involved in planning the drill and were unaware that armed personnel would be active in the area that day. “We are now intensively examining where the communication broke down,” a police spokesperson said.
The Bavarian state criminal police and prosecutors in Landshut have opened an investigation into the incident. Bavaria’s Interior Minister Joachim Herrmann, who oversees the Bavarian police, has not yet commented publicly.
