Five year-old Erdem Aşkan was killed on impact by a vehicle driven by a specialist police sergeant in Yüksekova (Gever), a district of Turkey’s Kurdish-majority Hakkari (Colemêrg) province.
The sergeant was on duty at the Yüksekova District Gendarmerie Command at the time of the incident, Mezopotamya Agency reported. The collision with Aşkan occurred as the sergeant, driving a Chevrolet sedan, overtook a lorry at an excessive speed.
The Aşkan family had been waiting on the central reservation, and while the boy’s mother and sister narrowly avoided being hit by the vehicle, the boy was struck and dragged 200 metres, the family’s lawyer, Ömer Faruk Aşkan, told Gazete Duvar.
Eyewitness rushed to help, while the specialised sergeant, who exited the vehicle, was preoccupied with his phone. Despite pleas from an eyewitness to take the child to the hospital, the sergeant neglected to do so, the lawyer said.
Local shopkeepers and residents gathered at the scene. Outraged by the driver’s actions, they kicked the vehicle at which point the sergeant threatened the crowd at gunpoint and fled the scene.
An investigation into Aşkan’s death is underway, led by the Yüksekova Chief Public Prosecutor’s Office. Sources indicate that the specialist sergeant involved has been detained as part of the ongoing investigation.
