Greece’s police department on Wednesday said it had suspended an officer suspected of fatally shooting a teenage Roma boy, the second such incident in less than a year.
The 17-year-old’s death on Sunday sparked unrest with Roma protesters, who set fire to garbage bins and tyres, and blocked highways near Athens on Tuesday.
The police over the weekend said they had tracked down on Saturday a speeding car with four passengers on a rural highway near the central town of Thiva.
The car eventually crashed into another vehicle and when the officers approached, they found the driver, Christos Michalopoulos, seriously hurt from a gunshot wound, a police statement said.
He later died in hospital.
The officer has reportedly claimed his gun went off as the youth tried to wrest it away.
In December, a Greek motorcycle officer fatally shot a Roma teenager near Thessaloniki after he allegedly drove away from a petrol station without paying.
That incident had also sparked clashes with riot police in Greece’s second city Thessaloniki at the time.
Source: AFP
