• The victim is being remembered by his friends as an outgoing person and father a three-year-old girl

A police officer fatally shot a man who reportedly defied coronavirus regulations in Mekele town, capital of Tigray region, BBC Tigrinya reported. The victim was identified as Sheshay Kiros, and he was a self-taught ironsmith.

Two police officers on patrol in Kebele 5, a suburb east of Mekele, are said to have been tipped off about young men who were drinking local beer in a public space. When the police officers reached there and told the young men to disperse, they were met with resistance. That was when the police fatally shot one of them, striking the man in the chest, according to the report. One witness who was on the spot said two police officers, one armed with a rifle and another carrying stick came towards them. “They told us that they would take us to the Mekelle community police bureau, the victim asked what we had done. It was after this exchange that the officer fired the rifle and killed him,” he was quoted as saying by the BBC. The victim is being remembered by his friends as an outgoing person and father a three-year-old girl. “Sheshay wasn’t that kind of guy to start trouble,” a friend, Daniel Kindeya said. “He was a really hardworking man. He was always working.but yesterday since it was Sunday and we were having a drink and a chat.” 

During the incident, two other men were shot and wounded, it was reported. The police officer who fired the shot has been arrested, head of Mekelle city’s crime prevention unit, Andenet Legesse told the BBC. Another person has been killed in the region under similar circumstances at the end of March.

Getachew Gebrekiros Temare, an activist and human rights advocate, wrote on his blog, saying Tigrai’s security forces are not new to commit extrajudicial killings in the region.