CAIRO: A police officer was arrested after he shot dead a microbus driver in Cairo's Maadi suburb after a verbal argument erupted between the two over what eye witnesses said was a traffic dispute. The officer is to be held for four days pending an investigations. Soon after the incident, riots broke out in area after the police officer shot the driver at the Algeria Square. The motive for the shooting was unclear, although bystanders said the shot was fired in the midst of an argument between the two. Angry residents set fire to the police car and attacked him, beating him, before the military intervened and took both the police officer, who some said was dressed in plain clothes, and the driver to El Nakheel Hospital. The alleged police officer, Salah el-Din Ashraf Salah el-Din, was shown burnt in a video posted on Twitter and al-Youm al-Saba`a news website, which also quoted a security source as saying that an argument erupted between the officer and the microbus driver called Amr. When residents and bystanders gathered and tried to intervene to defend the driver, the officer pulled his gun and shot the driver. In the video, people clearly say the driver “is dead.” One source also said that the bystanders seized the officer's gun. Right after the incident, some groups on Facebook called for the resignation of the newly appointed Minister of Interior for failing to change the approach of police officers in dealing with citizens. Police violence is common in Egypt and despite the ending of the regime of Hosni Mubarak, violence against citizens continues to be doled out by officers in the country. The reaction of the people shows the ongoing tension between the police and the ministry of interior and citizens. BM
