The arrested officer appeared in court on Tuesday on charges of attempted manslaughter. Protesters shout slogans as they demonstrate in Thessaloniki It said the driver of the pick-up truck had “repeatedly made dangerous manoeuvres” and drove through red lights before the shots were fired.Īfter the shots were fired, the driver had lost control, hit a wall and was “transported to the hospital with serious injuries”, police said. In a statement, police said officers had fired two bullets to try and stop him from attempting to hit police motorbikes. Officers from a motorcycle patrol chased the teenager’s pickup truck after a petrol station employee reported an unpaid bill of 20 euros ($21). The incident occurred outside Thessaloniki before dawn on Monday. Police said the 34-year-old officer arrested on suspicion of shooting the teenager was suspended and an internal investigation was under way. The youth injured on Monday was not named but was identified by relatives as a member of the Roma minority. Several Roma men have been fatally shot or injured in recent years during confrontations with police while allegedly seeking to evade arrest for breaches of the law. Members of the Roma community in Greece and human rights activists frequently accuse Greek authorities of discriminating against Roma. Protesters block the main road and set fire to rubbish bins outside the Ippokrateio General Hospital in Thessaloniki Įarlier in the day, protesters and members of the teenager’s family had thrown rocks at riot police outside the hospital where the boy is receiving treatment before police responded by firing tear gas. The demonstrators in Greece’s capital had a banner reading: “They shot them because they were Roma.”īrief clashes broke out with police after the protest ended. Several hundred people also took part in a peaceful protest march in central Athens over the teen’s shooting as well as a past incident in which a Roma man also was shot during a police chase. Police had used stun grenades and tear gas earlier to disperse protesters throwing bottles at them outside the hospital. Before that protest, about 100 Roma men set up barricades, blocking the main road outside the hospital where the boy was being treated, and set fire to rubbish cans. Police detained six people after the end of the march. Some smashed shops and threw Molotov cocktails at police, who responded with tear gas and stun grenades. The Greek police department said the youth had tried to ram officers in pursuit on motorbikes in his attempt to evade arrest.Ībout 1,500 people took part in a protest march organised by left-wing and anarchist groups in central Thessaloniki on Monday night. The officer who allegedly shot him in the head was arrested and suspended from duty, police in the northern city said. The 16-year-old was being treated in critical condition at a Thessaloniki hospital. Violent protests have broken out in Greece’s second-largest city over the police shooting of a Roma boy after he allegedly filled his vehicle at a petrol station and drove off without paying.
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