Tension simmering over police shooting of Roma teen
Members of Thessaloniki’s Roma community clashed with a riot squad outside a Thessaloniki court on Tuesday morning, during the arraignment of a police officer who shot and critically injured a Roma teenager.
The 32-year-old police officer, a member of the motorcycle-riding DIAS squad, faces charges of manslaughter with possible intent and for discharging his weapon without due cause, after shooting the 16-year-old boy in the head during a chase.
The incident occurred in the early hours of Monday, when DIAS officers responded to a call to pursue the pickup truck the teenager was driving after he sped away from a gas station without paying his bill.
The teenager was not armed, but he allegedly tried to ram a police motorcycle during the chase, prompting the 34-year-old DIAS officer to open fire.
According to reports in the local media, the 34-year-old police officer – who has been suspended pending the findings of the investigation into his actions – claimed in his initial statement that he opened fire because he felt that his and his fellow officers’ lives were at risk.
Clashes with police were reported in several parts of the northern port city on Monday night as well, but also in Volos, where members of the Roma community there held a rally to protest the shooting.
Monday’s incident comes a year after seven police officers were accused of fatally shooting another young Roma man in similar circumstances in the port city of Piraeus.
