Late Friday night in Perama, there was a fatal incident involving police and car thieves. The relatives of the deceased Roma are accused of premeditated murder of seven arrested guards.
Police officers have been detained, an official investigation is underway. So what happened? Were their shots, which resulted in the death of a young guy, out of necessity? They tried to figure out the situation on the Skai TV channel, revealing the testimony of one of the seven DIAS motorcyclists.
Events, according to the police, developed as follows. Late Friday evening, DIAS officers chased a vehicle that was suspected of being stolen. Leaving the pursuit, the car with the suspects rammed five police motorcycles and tried to escape. At the same time, 7 law enforcement officers were wounded. At some point, the police were ordered (and not one, but 6-7) to stop pursuing because of the high speed on a busy road, a spokesman for the Police Immediate Response Service later said. Perhaps the orders were not heard, the channel admits, or the police decided to continue the pursuit, ignoring them.
While trying to stop the car, the police used weapons (35 bullets were fired). As a result, the driver was killed, one passenger was injured, and another managed to escape. As it turned out, the car had indeed been stolen. As it became known later, there were three gypsies in it: a 20-year-old driver and two 16-year-old teenagers. One of the detained police officers during the preliminary investigation said:
“He (a 20-year-old boy) attacked us with a car. He hit all of our motorcycles consistently. We fired when he was pulling a motorcycle with my colleagues in a car. We fired when the driver rammed the motorcycles. We tried to stop the criminals’ car. After the incident, when we learned that all colleagues were healthy, we notified the center, and then provided first aid to the victims with tourniquets and hemostatic bandages. Everything was done to prevent an immediate danger – for my life and the lives of my colleagues. “
The testimony of the other six police officers is similar. On Wednesday, October 27, at the direction of the prosecutor of Piraeus, all seven will appear before the investigator of the Attica Police Headquarters, where they are now being held, for an explanation on several points: on charges of premeditated murder, attempted murder with intent, the use of weapons. A ballistic examination will determine which of them used the weapon and who fired the fatal shots.
According to the Skai TV channel, the Greek media accuse the detained policemen of unprofessionalism, noting that they shot 38 times. In addition, as follows from the records of their talks with the leadership, which were published, none of the police officers were injured, which refutes the official statement. The channel notes:
“Seven police officers were arrested as part of a red-handed arrest procedure and brought before a prosecutor who is expected to investigate whether they were acting in self-defense or whether it was a case of police violence.”
The Roma community reacted violently to the incident, accusing the police of deliberate reprisals and demanding justice.
Panayiotis Theodorikakos, Minister of Citizens’ Protection, instructed the police to conduct an official investigation into the actions of the officers, allotting five days for this. He asked the head of ELAS to give a quick assessment of the actions of the DIAS police officers involved in the incident by Friday.
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