Identity of Gezi protest victim’s alleged police officer shooter revealed

ANKARA

Ethem Sarısülük passed away June 14, increasing the number of casualties in the protests to four. DHA photo

The identity of the police officer who allegedly shot Ethem Sarısülük, the fourth casualty of the Gezi Park protests, has been revealed and sent to the public prosecutor’s office, daily Hürriyet reported on its website.

The police officer’s gun was also sent to the criminal investigation bureau.

The decision to ask for the police officer’s identity and to send his gun for a criminal investigation was given after the public prosecutor looking into the incident investigated the pre-autopsy report, the report of the gendarmerie expert, the testimonies of the eye-witnesses and the security camera records.

The investigation of the police officer, identified as A.Ş., is being pursued and the public prosecutor will appeal to the officer for his testimony, Sarısülük’s lawyer, Kazım Bayraktar, was quoted saying.

The gun was sent to the Istanbul Forensic Medicine Institute for a criminal investigation, which Bayraktar said had not been anticipated as they had expected the gun to be sent to the gendarmerie criminal. “We will learn from the public prosecutor why [the gun] was sent to Istanbul [Forensic Medicine Institute],” Bayraktar said.

Ethem Sarısülük passed away June 14, increasing the number of casualties in the protests to four. A commemoration was intended to be held on June 16 in Ankara’s Kızılay Square, where he was shot as the police intervened with water cannons and tear gas.