The fall-out from the shooting of a young African at Gran Canaria airport has escalated with a protest in Las Palmas and an official demand from Gambia for a full inquiry.
As reported here, 19-year-old Abdoulie Bah was shot dead by police on 17 May after running amok in the terminal building and threatening passengers with a knife. He also attacked a taxi driver and set upon a policeman before the latter’s colleagues opened fire, killing him instantly in full view of passengers waiting for buses outside the airport. The shooting and sequence of events were captured on CCTV cameras.
It has subsequently emerged that the young migrant had arrived by boat in Gran Canaria in 2019 as a boy and had mental health problems, He was known to police from a previous incident just a few days earlier.
Dozens of members of African communities in Gran Canaria took to the streets last Thursday outside government buildings to denounce police violence and structural racism and call for a full investigation into the shooting, which some of the protesters described as murder. The president of @mujeresafroencanarias, Laura Yasmine Balde Ejjar, read an emotional manifesto that was followed by shouts of «justice» and a round of applause in memory of the 19-year-old.
The government of Gambia, Bah’s country of origin, have now asked the Spanish authorities to conduct an independent probe into the tragedy. In a statement, the country’s foreign ministry said the government “deeply regrets the loss of such a young life in tragic circumstances and expresses its solidarity with the family of Mr Bah and the Gambian community”.
The statement expressed “serious concern” at the use of lethal force and Spain had been asked to undertake a transparent and independent judicial inquiry into the circumstances of the shooting.
Gambia’s embassy in Madrid sent its Deputy Head of Mission to Gran Canaria to liaise with Spanish officials and assist the family with arrangements to return Bah’s body for burial.
The fatal shooting is already subject of a preliminary probe by a judge in Gran Canaria, who will decide whether the lethal force used by officers in firing five shots at the young African was proportionate to the threat he posed.
