A few hours after the decision to release the police officer, with restrictive conditions on not being able to leave the country, the mother of the victim, the 17-year-old Roma, who was shot dead, could not contain her anger.
“Why was my child’s killer released? Would he like it done to his child? Kill him and necrophilise it? A sick child. He was working and going to school,” Mrs Tasia, the 17-year-old’s mother, told Alpha.
“I want them to kill him. Who will bring my child back to me? I don’t want him back out into society. He couldn’t even see the sun,” she added.
For her part, the 17-year-old’s godmother, Mrs Magda, said, “I always advised him, argued with him not to drive. He told me, ‘I must drive to work.’ He was forced from the age of 15, when his father died, to go to work to help the rest of his family.”
“This policeman took a life without checking anything. I feel sorry for Justice. This kid is not coming back,” she added.
Dozens of people from the Roma settlement Agia Sophia in western Thessaloniki protested on Tuesday the fatal injury of the 17-year-old that took place on Saturday in Boetia.
According to state broadcaster ERT, at around 2 p.m. the crowd set up a roadblock on Pontou street, which they then set on fire.
The protesters dispersed after the police rushed to the scene.
Regarding the death of the 17-year-old Roma boy, evidence shows that the bullet initially hit the victim’s left thumb and then went through to the left cervical area.
The police officer accused of the death of the 17-year-old on Saturday night in Leontari, Viotias, was released with restrictive conditions after his testimony.
In the testimony submitted to the authorities, the police officer stated, among other things, that “unfortunately, the whole incident is due to a tragic circumstance, since if the barrel of the weapon had moved even one centimetre further after the action of the late victim, the result would have been different and we would have had him around.”
In the testimony, the accused police officer also mentions what preceded the fatal injury of the 17-year-old.
“So after I opened the driver’s door and having taken precautions so that my body was outside the opening of the driver’s door, specifically in point where the back door is separated from the front door, and holding my service weapon in my right hand I repeatedly shouted “Police, get down.
“With my left hand, I grabbed the deceased by the right shoulder, leaning into the car since he was resisting and refusing to get out of the vehicle. At this point, the deceased had now with his upper body turned into a position inclined to the left forward – crouching and while my right hand, holding the weapon, was very close at a distance of about 50 – 60 centimetres from his body of the deceased, in the car.
“At the same time, I continued to pull him by the shoulder to get him out. Then his body moved towards my right hand, probably out of fear because the gun was very close to it. He made the fatal motion with the outer part of his palm and, bringing his hand to the front of the barrel, violently pushed my gun away, causing it to discharge, for this violent motion caused the trigger to be actuated without me never on it.
“That’s why, as the video audio document shows, my human reaction is to scream and sob, ‘what have you done, man?’. Unfortunately, the whole incident is due to a tragic circumstance since if the barrel of the weapon had moved even one centimetre further after the action of the late victim, the result would have been different, and we would have had him with us.
“I moved to the side of the driver’s door shouting loudly ‘Police’, ‘Put it out’, ‘Get down’, ‘Stop’, without even taking my gun out of its holster, as the eyewitness K. D confirms.
When the driver ignored my clear orders; I had to because the vehicle was trapped, and it was my only chance to immobilise him as he appeared willing to flee again, putting my life in danger since the driver could be armed and shoot me.
“When, for the second time, the driver of the suspect vehicle ignored my commands, and since I could not see how many people were in the car, the windows were black despite the lights. I could not see anything. I took my service weapon out of the holster with my right hand, which had no safety. I cocked it and kept yelling at the driver to get out and turn off the engine.
“After several seconds, which I cannot count exactly how many because of the intensity of the moments, with my left hand, I opened the driver’s door. For the first time, I saw, as far as I could see in the darkness, that in the driver’s seat, he was a man whose age I could not estimate nor his physique.
Still, they had elements of danger, as this is proved by the fact which arose later during the search of the car where in the open compartment of his door, the driver finds a dangerous weapon with a large blade, and in the open case of the passenger door he finds a large screwdriver which is completely unrelated to the age and daily activities of the victim, his brother and their mother.”
Source: Greek City Times