JEDDAH, 6 October 2003 — Police are disputing a report in Al-Madinah Arabic newspaper yesterday that an African man was shot dead by police in the Al-Gholail district.
According to the report, police were patrolling the area when they saw an African man staggering in the street in a manner that suggested he was drunk.
When an officer approached the man and demanded his identification, a struggle ensued in which the policeman was knocked to the ground.
According to witnesses, while the policeman was down, the suspect brandished a knife, attempting to stab the fallen officer. In response, the officer fired two shots into the man’s chest, killing him.
In the subsequent police investigation, the policeman and all witnesses to the incident were detained pending the outcome of the investigation.
But an on-duty officer at Al-Gholail district police station in south Jeddah told Arab News: “I have not heard of the incident, and cannot comment any further.”
“Local press coverage of incidents like that is usually inaccurate,” he added.
Arab News contacted the emergency units of the three main hospitals in the district. None had heard of the incident, although one hospital told Arab News that if the African had died at the scene, he might not have been taken to an emergency unit.
The Al-Madinah reporter, when contacted by Arab News, double-checked with his sources and said: “I stand by my story.”
Members of the African community in the Al-Gholail district said they had not heard about the incident. They added that clashes between police and members of their community in the district are commonplace and often go unreported.
“But usually if something like this happened everybody here would be talking about it for days,” said Abdullah Hassan, an African national who has been living in the Al-Gholail district for six years.
