"Both of my shots were aimed low" the police officer who shot the 16-year-old Roma boy said in his apology. The police officer, who is under house arrest after an investigator and prosecutor disagreed on his pre-trial detention, claimed he never aimed at the driver or the van's cab, and said he was shocked when he found the injury.
According to sources, the officer also claimed that the gas station attendant is lying that he was not the one who informed the officers of the incident. He also points out that his gun still had 10 bullets, which he claims indicates that he did not intend to kill the 16-year-old.
"False allegation of the petrol station employee"
The policeman said that the incident occurred at dawn on December 5, 2022, while he was on duty and arrived with colleagues at a petrol station. Then, they were approached by a petrol station employee who reported that a customer put 20 euros worth of fuel in a pickup truck and left, giving them the license plate number.
Speaking to the investigating officer, he allegedly said that it is "false is the claim of the petrol station employee B. T. that he never approached us about the said incident and that because he monologued that the driver of the pickup truck escaped without paying him, we heard what he said and allegedly volunteered to voluntarily pursue the vehicle."
The chase of the pickup
The police officers, the defendant allegedly said, spotted the suspicious vehicle which was maneuvering zigzagging before they approached it. Although the motorcycle officers asked the driver to stop, he drove off abruptly with the intention of ramming the first motorcycle. However, it was avoided, thanks to the police officer's maneuver.
Then, according to everything the police officer allegedly said, the pickup drove off, violating two red lights.
"At the last railroad tracks before the jail, for no apparent reason and while able to continue straight on to enter the settlement in order to escape arrest, as he knew that we were not on an organized operation and had no possibility of entering the settlement, he suddenly quite abruptly made a U-turn, with the result that he came head-on and slightly diagonally with the first engine of the A. - Then because the driver stopped the vehicle for a moment, the first engine also stopped and the above-mentioned began to give him orders to dismount from it. However, the driver did not obey, but restarted the vehicle at high speed, intending to hit the first engine with the front of the pickup," he allegedly said.
The 16-year-old driver, according to the police officer, moved towards the Diavata jail. The driver, he claimed, reversed and stepped on the gas again to move towards the first motorcycle, intending to hit it, and for a moment, he thought he had run them over.
"I pulled out my service weapon and fired twice, while holding it only with my right hand because our motorcycle was in motion. I fired low both times, towards the tires of the car," he allegedly said, except there was a bounce due to the distorted asphalt. He claimed he could not aim accurately because he was holding the gun with one hand and was 50 feet away from the pickup truck.
The magazine and the shot
The officer relies on both ballistics testing, which shows that there were 10 bullets in his magazine, which he states, indicates that he did not intend to kill the driver, and the finding of the second bullet striking low in the motel front door, which he says indicates that he fired from high to low.
After the shooting, the officer says they called for the driver to exit the vehicle, which had ended up against a wall, and did not rule out that he had fled. A SWAT team arrived at the scene and it was then discovered that the driver had sustained a head injury and there was a hole in the rear window of the van.
He said he was shocked by the injury as he had aimed low. He said he and his colleagues bandaged the wound and after 15 minutes the ambulance arrived, which picked up the injured man and took him to the hospital.
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