Policeman killing ethnic Georgian in Ukraine in traffic incident arrested

A Ukrainian police officer who on Wednesday shot an ethnic Georgian Jumber Silogava dead in the city of Dnipro in an incident after violating traffic regulations, has been arrested, facing charges for premeditated murder and abuse of official authority, the Prosecutor General’s Office of Ukraine said. 

The Ukrainian police are also investigating an assault on a police officer that reportedly preceded the shooting in presence of Silogava’s partner and his two underage children.

The Ukrainian law enforcement bodies claimed Silogava,39, who was registered in the city of Dnipro and had been reportedly engaged in business activities since 2014, had refused to comply with the lawful request of the police after violating traffic rules, and when the patrol police officers tried to remove the passengers from the car, Silogava resisted and assaulted a female police officer, with another officer firing three shots to him.

The footage released by the police showed Silogava was unarmed.

Individuals and social media pages affiliated with the ruling Georgian Dream party in Georgia have spread distorted information over the incident, and hinted at connections between the shooting and Silogava’s Georgian ethnicity, attempting to generalize the incident to Ukraine’s attitude towards Georgia and Georgians.