Erbil gas station shooting: Dispute over spilled fuel leaves three dead

Dubai:  A dispute over spilled gasoline at a fuel station in Erbil escalated into a deadly shooting on Wednesday evening, killing three people, including a well-known Iraqi bodybuilding champion, Erbil police said.

The Erbil Police Directorate said the incident began with an argument between two customers and a station attendant over the cost of two to three litres of fuel that had spilled during refuelling. When the customers refused to pay for the lost fuel, the disagreement turned physical. “There was pushing and shoving between the two customers and the fuel station worker. Another worker tried to intervene, but the customers pushed him as well. He then went inside, retrieved a firearm and opened fire,” Colonel Karzan Saleh, Erbil Police spokesperson said.

The weapon was taken from a cabinet used by a security guard belongs to a private security company responsible for protecting the station. The shooting was indiscriminate, police said, striking the two customers as well as a bystander from Erbil who had been standing outside the station. All three were killed instantly.

Authorities identified the two customers as Arab citizens visiting the Kurdistan Region for tourism. One of them, Hammoudi Riyadh, who had been crowned Iraq’s bodybuilding champion. The Iraqi Bodybuilding Federation confirmed his death in a statement on Wednesday night, calling it “a loss to the sport.” Colonel Saleh explained that the firearm was kept on site for a security guard who begins his shift at midnight. “The altercation occurred around 9 pm before the guard’s shift had started.”

Lieutenant Colonel Abu Bakr Suleiman, spokesman for the Kurdistan Regional Police, said the shooter had been arrested and that investigations were under way. “There was no prior dispute between the suspect and the victims, and the suspect has no known health problems,” he said.