Clashes between police and citizens in Minya have left a young girl injured and three cars smashed after several officers surrounded the house of a suspect charged with killing a police officer. Al-Hassan Abdel Gawad, a police captain, was killed as he attempted to break up a fight between two armed families in the Abu Helal area of southern Minya. Following his death, security forces destroyed a kiosk owned by one of the suspects and then surrounded his house. Clashes erupted between the police and citizens who demonstrated against the police's actions. Marwa Mohamed, an eight-year-old girl, was shot and injured and three cars were damaged. A military funeral was held for Abdel Gawad, the son of deputy National Security chief Ahmed Abdel Gawad, in his hometown of Dairut in Assiut. “Policemen continue to offer sacrifices to achieve the security of citizens. As Major Amr Hassan, Minya police station investigations unit chief, Captain Al-Hassan Abdel Gawad, an officer in the same unit, and an accompanying unit were checking out a shooting in the Abu Helal area, both parties shot at them," read a Ministry of Interior statement released Monday. Abdel Gawad was injured in the shoulder and Ragab Ibrahim, an accompanying policeman, was shot in his right side with a firearm. “The injured were transferred to the Minya University Hospital but the Captain died of his wounds and the proper legal action was taken. Security forces are doubling their efforts in an attempt to find the culprits.”
