site.btaUPDATED Interior Minister Removes Plovdiv’s Specialized Police Chief from Office

The head of the specialized police force in Plovdiv has been removed from office, caretaker Interior Minister Kalin Stoyanov told the media on Tuesday. He was there to look into a case of a police officer who was accidentally shot and killed by his son.

“After being on assignment in the morning, the colleagues had training planned. Later, the police officer picked up his child, who is 7 years old, and took him to the police building. The child was in the room where police officers change clothes. There, probably in a locker, was the gun. The child and the policeman were alone in the room, there were no other people,” Stoyanov said, pointing out that the other policemen only heard a gunshot, and when they went into the changing room, they found the child with a gun in his hands and the man shot. 

There are a lot of questions - how a child of seven was in one of the specialized units and how there was a gun in his hands. It is to be established whether it has happened other times, Stoyanov said.

Later in the day, after a meeting with the Interior Minister, the director of the Regional Directorate of the Interior Ministry - Plovdiv, Senior Commissioner Georgi Chergov, said that he would apply for a transfer to another position, despite the lack of evidence that he is directly responsible for what happened.