A 45-YEAR-old Paphos police officer was yesterday under investigation after he shot and injured a Syrian man at the end of a chase.
The man was shot from behind and was unarmed.
The incident occurred on the Chlorakas-Kissonerga road on Sunday evening when the officer, one of the force’s ‘Z’ squad motorcyclists, spotted a vehicle that had been reported stolen last June.
According to police, the 45-year-old officer tried to pull the car over at 6.45pm, but the driver, who had one passenger, accelerated and sped off.
The police spokesman’s office said the man driving the car drove recklessly, sped through two red lights, and placed the pursuing officer’s life in danger.
Police said they were investigating reports that the driver of the car turned the vehicle on the motorcyclist and tried to mow him down.
Eventually, the car pulled over and the two men inside tried to escape on foot. The officer pulled out his weapon and shot and injured one of the men in the shoulder blade. The other man managed to escape.
The injured man, who was later identified as a 29-year-old illegal immigrant from Syria, was rushed to Paphos general hospital. He was released yesterday, police said.
Asked whether the man would be deported, the Cyprus Mail was told it was a possibility.
“Nevertheless, it’s likely he might be allowed to stay while the investigation is ongoing to discover what really happened,” a police source said.
The officer involved was suspended pending further investigation by the CID headquarters and Paphos police headquarters.
The same source said the 45-year-old officer was not someone known to be “trigger happy”.
“Police gossip is something else and you might sometimes get the odd officer who is overly zealous, but there was nothing ever said about this guy,” he said.
However, asked whether he was shocked at hearing of the incident, he said: “I can’t say I was shocked. I personally wouldn’t have reacted that way, but you never know how someone is going to react.”
The source said the fact that the officer had been alone at the time of the shooting could be a problem, as it would mean his word against the victim’s.
“It acts in his favour and against him,” he said. “That’s why the investigative team will be looking for witnesses in the area at the time the incident occurred to shed light on what happened, and how the events unfolded.”
Police said shootings were uncommon and firearms were only used when lives were in danger.
“It has to be something very serious,” an officer at the spokesman’s office said.
If found guilty of misuse of firing a weapon during the line of duty, police said their colleague could face any number of penalties including transfer to another department, demotion, or even dismissal.
“No one can say what the outcome will be. It all depends on what the investigation reveals,” police said.
Commenting on the incident yesterday, the president of immigrant support group KISA, Doros Polycarpou, said such case were of grave concern.
“There is a serious problem regarding police racism and mistreatment of immigrants. The officer definitely knew the two men were foreigners. How often do you hear about other people getting shot?”
Polycarpou expressed concern that the man had been shot in the back, “in an area that is close to the heart and lungs”, rather than the legs.
The human rights activist told the Mail the treatment of immigrants in Paphos was beyond control.
He said: “We receive repeated reports of police abuse. It is a situation that really concerns us and it’s a problem throughout the force. A couple of years ago, they killed an immigrant in Limassol and the only witness, another immigrant, was deported. The officer who shot him said the immigrant had had a gun, but the weapon was never found. How do dead people get rid of guns?”
Justice Minister Sophoclis Sophocleous said that using a service weapon was a serious matter and that the officer in question had rightly been suspended pending further inquiry.
Nevertheless, he said it would be wrong to judge, condemn or acquit the policeman before all the facts had been examined.
Police needed to establish “how it happened, why it happened, and why the car didn’t pull over when the officer signalled for the driver to pull over,” he said.
