Aleh Vouchak: Police doesn’t know how to operate in extreme cases

Mahilou policemen could have killed the people they shot at.

This is how the head of the Legal Assistance to Citizens organization, a former prosecutor office’s investigator Aleh Vouchak commented for the charter97.org web-site on the use of government issued weapons by Mahlou policemen against the participants of a fight.

“The information available is, as usual, one-sided, and two issues should be considered here. First is the use of weapon by policemen. According to the law on police, policemen can use the weapon in the case if there is a direct threat to the lives of citizens or their own. In this case the beaten policeman or his colleague had the right to make a warning shot and start shooting but not a destruction fire, but at their knees and legs with the purpose of neutralization”, - the lawyer believes.

The human rights activist added that the second issue is related to the fact that on a night time patrol in such deserted places policemen should be working in uniform and have a coordinated plan for the case of danger: have a support patrol nearby etc.

“That is why the fighter could take them for common people. In this case I came to the conclusion that police is not prepared for working in extreme cases. Of course, the law does not forbid making nine warning shots, but I believe these were missed shots. It is also not clear whom the policemen were trying to save. In any case, using the weapon in such a situation law enforcers should understand that these are unarmed people before them, and they could wound several people at once, because bullet have the property of ricocheting. May be the policemen behaved in an incorrect way, that is why the conflict arose. It is also not clear why only one of the policemen was beaten. I will repeat that when on duty, even more so at night, they should not wear mufti, but the uniform with the whole set of special appliances that should be used together with hand-to-hand fight techniques first of all instead of using weapons. Even making shots at legs the Mahilou policemen could have killed the fighters. The thing is that if the inguinal artery is injured, a person dies in one and a half minutes because of blood loss”, - Aleh Vouchak emphasized.

We would remind that the Criminal Investigation Department’s officers used the government issued weapons against a group of fighting Mahilou residents.

Photo: bymedia.net