Old woman dies after being hit by laid off police officer in İzmir

İZMİR – Doğan News Agency

Video footage where M.A. can be seen shooting a dog. DHA Photo

A police officer previously laid off for intentionally injuring a dog in the Aegean province of İzmir has hit a 72-year-old woman while driving in central İzmir, causing the old woman’s death.

Gülgün Tuna, 72, was killed after being hit by a car driven by the 24-year-old former officer, identified only by the initials M.A., while she was crossing İzmir’s Yalı Street at around 9:30 p.m. on Aug. 18.

Tuna was rushed to a public hospital in the Karşıyaka district by medical staff dispatched to the scene, but she could not be saved. 

Her body has been taken to the İzmir Forensic Institute for medical examination. 

M.A. has been detained by police and taken to police station. 

The incident came less than a month after M.A. was laid off following an investigation into a video footage showing him intentionally shooting a dog with his officer’s pistol in İzmir’s Çiğli district, which sparked outrage from animal rights advocates including public officials, attorneys and medical staff.

M.A., who started working as a group chief in a police station in Çiğli in mid-June, shot one of the two stray dogs that had been cared for by officers at the police station for about three years, inside the police station compound on June 19.

In the video footage that later emerged, M.A. can be seen shooting the dog in the leg as it entered the compound, after he took his pistol from his police vehicle. The dog stumbled as it tried to escape the compound and M.A. can be seen driving away.

İzmir Governor Mustafa Toprak said at the time of the shooting that he was saddened by the incident and M.A. should be dismissed. 

“Punitive action should immediately be taken against the deputy police commissioner who mercilessly shot the dog … The bullet fired at the dog was fired at our own society … The act committed is subjected to one of the biggest penalties in the Security Discipline Code: Dismissal,” Toprak had said.

Senem Demirel, an attorney from the İzmir Bar Association Animal Rights Commission, said they would be closely following the investigations launched by the local public prosecutor’s office after the complaints by animal rights activists.