The police "tripped" and gun "went off" in fatal shooting, according to Governor

The Governor's Office in Turkey's Kurdish-majority province of Mardin released a communication about a fatal shooting by the police, saying that the police acted in accordance with regulations in the incident and that a civilian's death was the result of an accident.

21-year-old Adem Kara was fatally shot by the police on Thursday in the district of Midyat as he allegedly tried to run away when the police ordered him to stop.

The Governorship said on Saturday:

"When the person named Adem Kara tried to run away from the police, a police officer fired warning shots in the air. He began to pursue the person when he continued to run, and in the process tripped over a cobblestone that caused his gun to discharge, resulting in the injury of Adem Kara."

The Governor Mahmut Demirtas had earlier similarly claimed that the fatal shooting of a Syrian national by the police in April 2020 was an accident.

Ali Al Hamdan, a Syrian migrant, was killed by the police in Turkey's southern province of Adana on 20 April 2020 when Demirtas was serving as the governor in the province.

"A Syrian national named A.H. was accidentally injured by warning shots when he tried to run away from the police who ordered him to stop," Demirtas had said in a communication.

The police officer who shot Hamdan was sentenced to a prison term of 25 years in December 2021 for deliberate manslaughter.

Fatal shootings by Turkish police

404 civilians were killed by the Turkish police between 2007-2020, according to a report by the Baran Tursun Foundation, started by Mehmet Tursun, the father of 20-year-old Baran Tursun who was fatally shot by the police in the city of Izmir in November 2007.

93 of the fatalities were children, and 70 were women, the report said.