Turkish torture suspect shoots woman under police protection

ISTANBUL – Doğan News Agency

A woman has been shot by her former fiancée, one month after she escaped from the balcony of her house in order to avoid being shot and tortured by him in Istanbul’s Esenyurt neighborhood on April 14. 

The image of the woman, Büşra Eyüpabalı, attempting get on to her neighbor’s balcony in order to survive drew a strong reaction from women’s rights groups and contributed to the debate on violence against women.

Eyüpabalı’s former fiancée, Levent Keskin, shot her once and her friend, Ergün Gönültaş, three times while they were on the road traveling to their homes. The footage of the incident recorded by a security camera showed Keskin shooting the duo and escaping afterwards. 

Eyüpabalı and Gönültaş were taken to the Esenyurt State Hospital, while the police began a search to apprehend the suspect.  

Keskin previously went to his former fiancée’s house with a gun and tortured her for three hours before she managed to escape on March 17. She was put under protection and placed in a women’s shelter after the incident.