Police shoot dead teenager at checkpoint in Turkey’s southeast

MARDİN - Doğan News Agency

DHA Photos

A 16-year-old boy has shot dead by police after he failed to stop his car despite a warning in Turkey’s tense southeastern province of Mardin. 

The incident came shortly after an attack on a police shuttle carrying 25 officers in Mardin’s Kızıltepe district on Aug. 28, which injured nine police officers and 23 civilians.

Police officers shot 16-year-old Mazlum Turan at a checkpoint set up after the Kızıltepe attack, after he did not stop the car he was driving, which also contained two children, despite police issuing a stop warning. 

Turan reportedly fled the checkpoint, established around 500 meters from where the attack took place, late at night as he was driving without a driving license. 

Police shot at the car, wounding Turan but not hitting the two children also in the car. The two children were then evacuated from the car, after which Turan was taken to a hospital, where he succumbed to his injuries. 

Relatives of Turan said he made his living by selling live chickens and had fled the scene because he did not have a driving license. 

An investigation has been opened into the incident. 

The killing of Turan came less than two days after suspected PKK militants fired a rocket on a police shuttle carrying 25 officers at around 09.30 p.m. on Aug. 28. The rocket missed the bus and hit metal barrels in a shop on the street filled with diesel fuel. The explosion and the ensuing fire injured nine police officers and 23 civilians, while also damaging the surrounding buildings.