A police officer, identified only by his initials F.K., has been arrested for shooting dead a 17-year-old Syrian refugee in the southern Turkish province of Adana, Sputnik Turkish service reported on Tuesday.
Ali El Hamdani was killed by F.K. on Monday after he fled a security checkpoint. An official statement released by the Adana Governor’s Office said he was “accidentally shot by warning fire” after he continued to run despite calls to stop.
The bullet hit near Hamdani’s heart. Video footage circulating on social media showed an emergency medical team performing cardiac massage on a young man, claimed to be Hamdani, before putting him in an ambulance.
Hamdani ran away from the security checkpoint to avoid a possible fine because of a nationwide curfew imposed on people below the age of 20 against the COVID-19 pandemic, according to the Dokuz8 news website.
The young Syrian continued to work during the outbreak, reports said.