Incident seems to have been sparked by “banal traffic dispute”
A PSP police agent has been suspended from duty on suspicion of attempted murder after allegedly shooting five times at a passenger bus in Loures, injuring one of the passengers – a 16-year-old boy – in the eye.
The boy was hit by flying glass, as at least three of the shots shattered the bus’s windows.
The driver was allegedly so shaken by the episode that he accelerated for a kilometre, and only stopped once he had reached Loures’ PSP police station.
The attack began after a car drove in front of the bus on Rua Cidade Rio de Janeiro at around 8.30pm on Sunday. “A man got out from the inside of the car and fired five shots”, explain reports.
“The armed driver disappeared at the time, but (once the bus driver had reached the local police station and told the story), the PSP realised that the shooter was one of their operatives. The agent was arrested shortly afterwards, and disarmed, before being delivered to PJ police who are investigating the case”, writes Correio da Manhã this morning.
The agent “could be indicted for attempted murder as well as for an attack on the security of passenger transport, among other crimes.
“An official PSP source has confirmed that the agent is now suspended (from duty) and his gun has been apprehended. He is a policeman who serves in Lisbon’s Metropolitan Command”, says the paper.
As to the reason for the shooting, it is being described for the time being as a “banal traffic dispute”.
The 16-year-old was transported to Lisbon’s Santa Maria Hospital. It is understood that he will require surgery.
CM adds that when agents challenged their colleague, they discovered irrefutable evidence in that his service weapon had recently been fired, and he had the 9mm shell casings to prove it. CNN Portugal however suggests that the PSP agent “handed himself in to Loures (police station) on Monday morning”.
Source material: Correio da Manhã
