BERLIN
A 44-year-old man who was allegedly beaten by a German police officer in the northwestern city of Gelsenkirchen has died in hospital, local media reported.
The public prosecutor's office in the city of Essen confirmed on Wednesday that it was investigating whether the officer used disproportionate force while trying to arrest the suspect on New Year's Eve.
The man was allegedly punched in the face by the police officer as he resisted arrest and then hit his head after he fell to the ground, according to German media reports.
The man died in hospital on Tuesday, six days after the event.
The police had sought to detain the man on suspicion that he assaulted a woman and also tried to set her house on fire.
In Germany, 2,000 criminal complaints are made annually against police officers for disproportionate use of force and unlawful conduct, according to the judicial monitoring blog strafakte.de.
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