Tensions Running High In Erzurum After Boy Shot By Police Dies

A group of masked men attacked police with stones and slingshots in the eastern Turkish province of Erzurum on Thursday after news reports that a boy who was shot by a police officer one day earlier had died.

After blocking a highway where the provincial headquarters of the pro-Kurdish People's Democratic Party (HDP) office is situated, the protesters attacked police and threw petrol bombs onto the roads. Police initially refrained from engaging and let the protests disperse. Police officers also blocked several roads leading up to the Mahallebaşı neighborhood for residents' safety.

The protests erupted when a 14-year-old boy died after being shot by police in the stomach during a quarrel over a cow in Erzurum province.

The boy, identified as F.Ç., was shot dead on Wednesday by police, who had opened fire with the intention of dispersing a crowd that was attacking a driver for hitting a cow with his vehicle.

The incident took place at 9:15 p.m. in front of the Regional Traffic Control Branch in the Maksut Efendi neighborhood of Palandöken.

Prior to the incident, the driver accidentally ran his vehicle into a cow, which was owned by F.Ç., while driving on the main road from Erzurum to the district of Pasinler.

When the cow died, F.Ç. and his older brother İ.Ç. (16) entered into an altercation with the driver. The two brothers then called for their relatives, who arrived with knives and iron bars and attacked the driver.

The police tried to prevent the incident from spinning further out of control by firing their weapons into the air. One of the attackers then stabbed the driver in the right armpit and both F.Ç. and İ.Ç. were shot by one of the police officers, in his attempt to prevent the driver from being killed.

The wounded brothers were rushed to Atatürk University Faculty of Medicine Yakutiye Research Hospital and the driver was taken to Palandöken State Hospital.

Although F.Ç. underwent emergency surgery at the hospital, he did not survive. Police managed to disperse the crowd when reinforcements arrived at the scene.

The carcass of the cow was taken away by the Erzurum Metropolitan Municipality and witnesses were taken to police headquarters to give statements. Police patrolled in front of the hospital overnight to prevent further incidents or provocations.

F.Ç.'s body was taken to the Erzurum Council of Forensic Medicine (ATK) for an autopsy.

The police officer who shot the boys was arrested after giving testimony at a prosecutor's office. He said the people were going to lynch him and tried to grab his gun, adding that he was only shooting at the ground as a warning and that killing the boy was an accident.(Cihan/Today's Zaman)

SHOTLIST
TURKEY, ERZURUM, 18 JULY 2014

VAR of the clashes during the night
VAR of the riot police
Angry crowd

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