Dubai: The Emirati man who was shot and killed by police in Ohio was a law student at a Cleveland university.
Saif Nasser Mubarak Al Ameri, 26, was killed by a gunshot to the head fired by a policeman from Hudson City police. Al Ameri was a student at Case Western Reserve University, some 50 kilometres away from the rural area where Sunday’s shooting occurred.
According to officials, witnesses said Al Ameri was speeding on the Ohio Turnpike just outside Hudson, a small city of 25,000 people in rural Ohio. His car clipped another and overturned. Ohio State Patrol troopers responded to the accident because it occurred on a state road. An officer from the Hudson city police force joined the search.
“It’s a small, affluent city,” reporter Nick Grunt told Gulf News on Tuesday night. “I can’t remember something like this happening before. It’s very rare.”
There are 22 officers in the city police department.
A spokesman for Summit County Coroner’s Office told Gulf News on Tuesday night that the fatal shooting occurred under a road bridge. There was an altercation and the officer shot Al Ameri in the head. The officer, who was briefly hospitalised and treated for minor injuries, has been placed on paid administrative leave following the incident and pending the completion of investigations.
He said the initial accident occurred about 2.45 pm on Sunday, and the shooting occurred about 45 minutes later.
The area is hilly and wooded, and the weather was just above freezing.
A spokeswoman for Hudson City confirmed to Gulf News that one of its officers had been placed on administrative paid leave following the fatal shooting, and the investigation was being handled by Ohio’s Bureau of Criminal Investigation (BCI). She said the city would not be commenting any further on the case until all the investigations were concluded.
Eve Mueller, deputy director of Communications for the office of Ohio’s Attorney General, confirmed to Gulf News on Tuesday night that the state’s BCI was investigating the shooting incident, and that state officials had been in contact with the US Department of State in Washington and the UAE Embassy.
On Tuesday, the UAE’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation said that the UAE Embassy in Washington is investigating the death of the student. “In light of this follow-up, and after details of the painful incident are clarified by the authorities, the ministry will issue a more comprehensive statement,” Undersecretary Mohammad Mer Al Raisi said in a statement.
