What the police officer who was taken to the prosecutor claimed – Apologizes on Friday
With gatherings and episodes Roma groups express their anger over the serious injury of 16-year-old Kostas in Thessaloniki. The life of the minor and father of a child hangs by a thread as he has received a bullet in the head and is hospitalized in a critical condition at Hippocrate in Thessaloniki. The 34-year-old police officer who shot and hit the minor in the head is now facing felony charges for which he requested and received a deadline yesterday in order to to apologize on Friday. He, however, maintained that he instinctively shot down, however, due to the bounces of his motorcycle on the road surface and the speed, the bullet found the minor in the head.
Calls for no episodes at least outside the hospital were met, but nowhere near as much in Roma settlements in Western Thessaloniki. The settlement of Agia Sophia and especially the main Pontou street between Kalochori and Diavati turned into a battlefield yesterday. During the incidents, there was widespread destruction, the MAT forces used chemicals and stun grenades, while there are also reports that some Roma fired rifles to intimidate the police forces. A little later, incidents also took place in the settlement of Tsairia, in Thessaloniki, while Roma from all over Greece seemed willing to move to Thessaloniki.
The Athens-Patras highway was closed yesterday afternoon due to Roma gatherings in Megara, Aspropyrgos and Zevgolatio, without missing the tension with the police forces. In the early afternoon, fires were lit in Roma and on Mesogeion Avenue, at the height of the Mint camp, while tension was also caused in the afternoon in Pagani, Lesvos.
Thus, images of destruction were left behind by the incidents between Roma and MAT that broke out in the “Agia Sophia” settlement in Diavata, western Thessaloniki.
The incidents broke out on Pontou Street, near the gas station from where the pursuit began, which ended in the serious injury of the 16-year-old by a police officer.
The 100 or so Roma lit fires and kept throwing stones, all the while chanting slogans like “Here will be your grave”. Police forces responded with extensive use of chemicals.
The gathered took out rifles and shot in the air, lit fires on Pontou Street, set up barricades, and also burned a large amount of plastic and two excavators.
In the meantime, a new round of incidents between Roma and MAT squads also broke out on the Thessaloniki-Perea road near the Tsairia camp. They gathered and set fire to bins and car tires.
Yesterday at noon, the general secretary of Social Solidarity of the Ministry of Labor was at the hospital and spoke with the parents of 16-year-old Kostas, George Stamatiswho emphasized that the state is close to the minor’s relatives.
“I came here both as secretary general and as a person. I met with the family. It is a very tragic and unpleasant event for a fellow citizen of 16 years, for a child. The state will be here to support and help with whatever the family needs. Justice has taken over the rest. I want to empower parents. It is a difficult case, but the state was, is and will be here for whatever they need,” he said in his statements.
The family, for its part, did not ask for anything. “We came here to see them, to talk, to support them in this difficult situation that they and their child are experiencing. We will be here to support them”, said Mr. Stamatis.
At the same time, outside the hospital there were a large number of Roma, friends and relatives of the 16-year-old who demanded, in addition to the one who shot, that the other three policemen who were present at the incident be imprisoned.
“It was a racist shot. It was not one, but two. He said he kicked the tires. The shot was straight. He went to finish him off. We want the entire criminal group involved to go to jail. We don’t just want him to go to jail. Could someone tell him don’t pull, what are you doing? We are chasing a man for 20 euros. We are not after any big criminal. We live in Greece. We don’t live in some jungle,” said one of the gathered.
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