Shooting in Dnipro, what happened and why the police used weapons
In Dnipro, patrol policemen used their service weapons during a conflict that arose during the registration of a traffic violation. A man died as a result of the incident.
What happened
According to RBC-Ukraine's source in law enforcement, patrol policemen stopped an elite car in the center of Dnipro because the driver ignored traffic rules. During the drawing up of the administrative report, the woman behind the wheel did not provide the police with documents. A passenger sitting in the front seat intervened in the conversation, and a verbal altercation ensued. The man spoke to the patrol policemen in a rude manner and then attacked them.
The man first hit a female patrol officer in the face, and then attacked another policeman and threw him over his hip. After that, he again rushed toward the female patrol officer and hit her. At that moment, her colleague shot the attacker three times with his service weapon, hitting him twice in the back. The latter died on the spot from his wounds.
According to RBC-Ukraine's source in law enforcement, alcohol was found in the deceased's blood at 2.48 ppm, and in his urine at 2.78. This is about one drunk bottle of vodka.
Who was driving: theories
According to the investigation, a woman was driving the car at the time of the stop. But, as a source in law enforcement told RBC-Ukraine, at the time of the traffic violation, the car was driven by a man who was traveling with his mistress and two children.
After the patrol policemen noticed the traffic violation, they followed the car, trying to stop it. After the stop, the car was driven by a woman.
Police showed video from body cameras
Tonight, law enforcement officers showed a video from the body camera of a female patrol officer. The footage also showed footage from a street camera, which showed that the car was initially driven by a man, and the woman who was sitting in the driver's seat after the stop was in the passenger seat.
The body camera video also shows that the man was behaving inappropriately and was rude to the police. Law enforcement officers asked the woman for her documents, after which a man got out of the car, told her to close the car, open the window, and asked her the reason for the stop.
When an altercation began, he began to brag about the certificate from the volunteers and said that he would call lawyers and the police would be fired. Then the man got into the passenger seat and ordered the woman to drive away. At this point, the patrol policemen tried to detain the woman and pull her out of the car. A fight broke out, which escalated into a shooting.
The State Bureau of Investigation opened a case
In a comment to RBС-Ukraine, Oleksandr Bilka, a spokesman for the Poltava regional office of the State Bureau of Investigation, said that SBI officers, with the assistance of the National Police, had launched an investigation into the incident in Dnipro. According to their information, the patrol policeman had to use his service weapon.
Currently, the law enforcement officer has been notified of suspicion of premeditated murder and abuse of power. He has been detained.
According to RBK-Ukraine, the detained patrol officer is in a pre-trial detention center and a pre-trial restraint is to be imposed on him within three days.
Reaction of the Ministry of Internal Affairs
The head of the Ministry of Internal Affairs, Ihor Klymenko, reacted to the incident in Dnipro and said that it was necessary to analyze the events with a "cold head". The minister emphasized that the investigation into the shooting is ongoing and will provide answers to the main questions later, but added that this situation has become a serious precedent.
"This situation is a serious precedent. We live in wartime. Not always stable, but currently controlled. It is controlled thanks to the efforts of law enforcement agencies. If individual citizens live in anarchy and consider themselves above the law, and the police are unable to perform their functions, Ukrainian society will face very dark times," he added.