Two officers of the Kyiv patrol police have been charged with negligence of duty with grave consequences for their actions during a terrorist attack in the Holosiivskyi district.
This was announced by Prosecutor General Ruslan Kravchenko.
According to the investigation, the patrol crew arrived at the scene of a shooting. At the scene, they saw injured people: a child, a man and a woman, who needed emergency medical care. There were other people nearby, including another child.
“Instead, the patrol crew, having a service firearm with them and all the legal grounds for its use, actually flees the scene,” Kravchenko emphasizes.
According to him, due to the inaction of police officers, the armed man continued to move unhindered along the street and shoot at passersby.
“From 4:35 p.m. to 6:00 p.m. on April 18, six people were killed in Kyiv. Unfortunately, today another man died in the hospital from his injuries, becoming the seventh victim of the terrorist attack,” the Prosecutor General added.
Two patrol police officers have been charged with official negligence, which resulted in serious consequences – death of people (Part 3 of Article 367 of the Criminal Code of Ukraine). The sanction of the article provides for up to eight years of imprisonment. Investigators have filed a motion to select a preventive measure – detention, the State Bureau of Investigation added.
As the Public Prosecutor's Office informed, the patrol officers were not detained. A preventive measure will be chosen tomorrow, April 21.
What is known about the shooting in Kyiv?
In the Holosiivskyi district of Kyiv on April 18, a man opened fire on passersby on the street, and then broke into a supermarket, where he held those present hostage.
The attacker was eliminated during the assault on the store. The shooting left six people dead and 14 injured, including a child. The SBU qualifies the shooting of civilians as a terrorist attack.
Minister of Internal Affairs Ihor Klymenko ordered an internal investigation into the actions of the police officers, who have already been suspended from duty for the period of the investigation.
This happened after a video was posted on social media showing two police officers running away when they heard gunshots. The head of the Patrol Police Department of Ukraine, Yevhen Zhukov, resigned due to the actions of police officers during the terrorist attack in Kyiv.
On April 20, it became known that the death toll had risen to seven — one of the wounded died in the hospital.