Interior Minister Kalin Stoyanov gave new details about the policeman who shot the 18-year-old thief. He categorically stood behind the actions of the uniformed officer and stated that he is an excellent police officer, very well trained and repeatedly awarded.
“Condolences to the relatives of the dead boy. I want to clarify that everything I will say is based on the established facts and circumstances so far,” said Kalin Stoyanov in an interview with bTV.
“We categorically stand by the decision taken by the police officer to use a firearm in relation to a person who, first of all, there is evidence that he committed a robbery. Second, there is evidence that this person was part of a group that threatened their victims with a firearm.
Third, the police officer used a weapon after repeatedly warning the person to stop. And then he produced warning deletes,” the energy minister explained.
“The information about the robbery was submitted shortly after 2 o’clock. Around 5 o’clock, a signal was received from a security guard of a business center. It was there that the police found them, but the persons boarded the bus.
The officers signaled to the driver and he stopped the bus and opened the doors, but two of the three persons began to run.
The officer fired with a personal weapon. For this, he will possibly bear administrative responsibility. He carried both personal and official weapons, but he used the personal one. He can be held responsible for that.
The officer used his personal weapon because during the chase, his service pistol most likely fell out of its holster. These circumstances are currently being clarified.
It does not matter that the police officer carries both a service weapon and a personal weapon. If he wants, he can also carry three weapons. Most likely, his personal weapon is more modern than the Makarovs that police officers carry,” admitted Kalin Stoyanov. He announced that a change in the legal framework is being prepared to officially allow police officers to carry them while on duty and his official and personal weapon.
Stoyanov clarified that according to initial information, there were no stop cartridges in the policeman’s personal weapon. There were such only in the office. However, at close range, stop rounds can also kill a person.
“This is a serious incident, but in our opinion the police officer legitimately used a weapon in the situation.
According to initial information, the police officer fired two warning shots, and one of the bullets hit the perpetrator’s body. There is no policeman who wants to kill the person he is chasing – he wants to stop him,” said Interior Minister Kalin Stoyanov.
