Funeral held in Monufiya for tuk tuk driver shot dead by police officer

A large funeral took place on Tuesday in the Nile Delta governorate of Monufiya for a tuk tuk driver who was shot by a police officer, with local outlets reporting that a number of security personnel were deployed during the funeral procession.

A traffic police officer shot tuk tuk driver Mohamed Abdel Razeq in the head on February 14, reportedly after the driver struck the officer while  attempting to flee from a checkpoint. After being hospitalized for nearly one week, Abdel Razeq died of his injuries on Monday evening.

The privately owned Al-Shorouk newspaper published photos from Abdel Razeq’s funeral procession in Shebin al-Kom on Tuesday, reporting that there was “a heightened security presence.”

Several local news outlets reported that district prosecutors ordered the detention of an officer identified as Captain Ahmed Attia in connection to the shooting.

Attia issued a statement in which he has claimed that he did not intend to wound Abdel Razeq, having only resorted to using his firearm after being knocked to the ground by the fleeing vehicle.

“We will legally pursue the perpetrator ... We will not relent or forgive the officer who killed my brother,”Abdel Razeq’s brother, Wael, told Al-Shorouk

The incident of police violence is part of a string of fatal shootings targeting unarmed civilians in recent months.

In February 2016, a policeman shot and killed a taxi driver in Cairo’s working class district of Darb al-Ahmar following a dispute over a cab fare. A crowd angered by the shooting beat the police officer to the point that he had to be hospitalization, with the shooting also unleashing a wave of popular protests in the area. The officer, Mustafa Abdel Hassieb, was subsequently sentenced to life in prison in April.

Another Cairo policeman shot and killed a tea vendor and wounded two passersby outside the upscale Rehab residential compound in April 2016 during an argument over the price of a beverage. The officer was sentenced to life in prison in November.

In August, a police officer shot a microbus driver dead in Cairo’s southeastern district of Maadi after his colleague’s vehicle collided with the microbus. Microbus drivers responded to the violence by organizing a strike in Maadi. The Interior Ministry defended the officer's actions in an official statement, asserting that he had fired “a warning shot in the air from the gun in his possession, which resulted in the accidental death of the driver.” The officer is currently standing trial.