Two officers who shot Berkin Elvan detected, report says

Gülden Aydin ISTANBUL / Hürriyet

Berkin Elvan, spend 269 days in coma after being hit by a tear gas canister in the street near his house in Istanbul during a crackdown on Gezi protesters on June 16, 2013

An expert report on the death of Berkin Elvan, a 15-year-old who died from injuries caused by a tear gas canister in Istanbul’s Okmeydanı district during the Gezi Park protests, has revealed that two police officers shooting toward Elvan have been detected in camera footage.

The camera footage shows two police officers shooting tear gas at the spot where Elvan was fatally injured in the head. The footage has been included in the expert report that will be submitted to the Istanbul Prosecutor’s Office today.

On June 16, 2013, Elvan, then 14, was hit by a tear gas canister in the street near his house, sending him into a 269-day coma from which he never emerged. When he died, Elvan weighed just 16 kilograms.

Fourteen police officers have been investigated as part of the probe into the death of Elvan, but all of them have denied any role or responsibility in the incident. The recently revealed video footages could shed light on Elvan’s death.

According to a statement sent to the Istanbul Prosecutor’s Office by the National Technical Bureau/International Criminal Technical Investigation on April 25, “The location of the units who shot at the victim were analyzed accordingly with their testimonies and a judgment close to the reality has been reached.”

The expert report is also looking into whether there were any security cameras that recorded the incident, whether they were destroyed by demonstrators and when they were destroyed.

The expert report said it would be up to Turkish authorities to decide whether to conduct an analysis on the material that caused Elvan’s death and the autopsy report.

Uğur Kurtulan, an official from the National Technical Bureau, said the case was secret and that it would be up to the public prosecutor to share the details of the report with the public.