A Şırnak court has ordered the arrest of a police officer who crashed an armored vehicle into a house in the province’s Silopi district, causing the death of two children while they were sleeping, on Tuesday.
Two brothers, seven-year-old Muhammet Yıldırım and six-year-old Furkan Yıldırım were killed on May 4 after the police vehicle destroyed the wall of Mesut Yıldırım’s house in the Karşıyaka neighborhood. A police officer had been detained as a part of the investigation.
Pro-Kurdish Peoples’ Democracy Party (HDP) spokesperson and Şanlıurfa deputy Osman Baydemir has submitted a question motion to be answered by Prime Minister Binali Yıldırım over the incident. Baydemir’s questions, which haven’t been responded by PM Yıldırım yet, are as follows:
“How many police officers were there in the vehicle at that night? When is the crime scene investigation take place and what is the outcome? Were the involved police officers subjected to medical examination? If yes, what is the result? If not, why? Were police involved officers taken into custody? Have any administrative actions been taken for the police officers? Have any administrative actions been taken for the police officers who battered the eyewitnesses? What are the conditions for police officers to be assigned in armored vehicles, in Silopi? How patrolling police officers are assigned and how often are they monitored?”
Residents of the neighborhood initially said the police officer driving the vehicle was drunk, but Şırnak Chief Public Prosecutor Mehmet Patlak refuted the claim and said in a written statement that the police officer was proven sober following test results and blood sample analyses conducted in a hospital.
The Şırnak Governor’s Office had also refuted the claims of an intoxicated police driver in the crash. “The allegations in several media outlets and on social media regarding the driver police officer being intoxicated do not reflect the truth. No alcohol consumption was determined in the breath and blood tests conducted,” the governor’s office said.
May 9, 2017
