On 12 December 2023, the police officer fatally shot a mentally disturbed woman in her 50s after she repeatedly attacked him, his colleagues and paramedics. An investigation into the circumstances followed.
Prosecutor Rolandas Imbrasas on Wednesday told Vilnius Regional Court that Šerpytis should be found guilty of murder in the line of duty, as well as of abuse of office.
"The police acted chaotically, with aggressive threats of breaking and entering into the house. (...) The woman did not understand the officers’ demands," the prosecutor said in court, referring to the police footage of the incident.
The officers behaved unprofessionally, shouting at the woman, threatening to break into her house instead of a trying to have a calm conversation with her, he said.
According to Imbrasas, the police officers should have realised that they should communicate differently with the woman suffering from mental illness.
"I disagree that the use of the weapon was lawful and justified. (...) The distance (between the officer and the woman – ELTA) allowed for more than one warning shot to be fired, but this was not done," the prosecutor said.
He stated that Šerpytis crossed the limit of the defence of necessity by shooting at the woman.
The police officers initially used teargas and a taser to stop the woman but these measures did not help. Five shots were fired, some of them were warning shots, and one was fatal.