Police chief shot dead in northeast Turkey

Ankara: A Turkish provincial police chief was shot dead by an officer in the northeastern province of Rize, the ancestral region of President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, local media reported.

Altug Verdi died in hospital after the armed attack at the provincial police headquarters, state news agency Anadolu said.

The officer suspected of killing Verdi has been detained, the agency said.

Rize governor Kemal Ceber said two others also injured during the incident were in a “good” condition, NTV broadcaster reported.

Ceber said the suspect opened fire after asking for a transfer because he had won a place at university.

“It is most likely that he did not get the answer he wanted,” Ceber added, according to NTV, without giving further details.

Verdi, a married father-of-one, was named Rize police chief in August 2017. Before that, he had served in the prime minister’s protection team and the Turkish consulate in Jerusalem.

Erdogan was born in Istanbul but spent his earliest years in Rize by the Black Sea before returning to the big city by his early teens.

[source_without_link]AFP[/source_without_link]