Footage Shows Police Officer Fires Rubber Bullets at Activist's Head in Trustee Protests

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The police on Tuesday (August 20) intervened in the group protesting the dismissal of the three mayors from the Peoples' Democratic Party (HDP) and the appointment of trustees to their posts, detaining numerous people.

The footage emerged yesterday appears to have been filmed from high ground. It shows the activist, whom a police officer was firing rubber bullets from a short distance, falls with the effect of the bullet.

Polis, protesto anında bir kişinin kafasına plastik mermi sıktı

Kayyımları protesto etmek için dün akşam Kadıköy'de buluşanlara sert biçimde müdahale edildi. Bir kişinin kafasına defalarca plastik mermi sıkıldı.
(Video: @firatfstk) pic.twitter.com/YwZakoZP5l

— Yol TV (@YolTV) August 21, 2019

After the protest, the İstanbul Security Directorate said 16 people were detained.

"Our officers intervened when the demonstrators in the group resisted and did not disperse. When a shop owner reacted after fleeing demonstrators knocked down trash cans on the roadsides, he was wounded in a life-threatening manner by being stabbed 3 times by demonstrators.

"During the events, 16 suspects were detained, 3 security guards were wounded in various places during the intervention, and efforts are underway to apprehend the suspects who were the perpetrators of the stabbing."

On the morning of 19 August, the Interior Ministry announced the dismissal of Diyarbakır Metropolitan Mayor Selçuk Mızraklı, Mardin Metropolitan Mayor Ahmet Türk and Van Metropolitan Mayor Bedia Özgökçe Ertan. It said the mayors were dismissed because of the criminal investigations against them. (TP/VK)