US policeman kills Qatari citizen

On Friday, Arizona Department of Public Safety announced the killing of a Qatari citizen in the state of Arizona, after allegedly attacking a state trooper, news agencies report.

The Arizona state trooper was patrolling for drunk drivers, along with a member of the group, Mothers Against Drunk Driving, on Thursday.

The state trooper spotted 25-year-old Mohamed Ahmed Al-Hashemi throw a street sign onto a road in suburban Phoenix late Thursday and ordered him to pick it up, said Col. Frank Milstead, director of the Arizona Department of Public Safety.

The Qatari citizen who held a student visa, 25-year-old Ahmed Al-Hashem, wouldn’t pick it up, then began walking in the middle of the road and wouldn’t obey commands to stop, Milstead said.

At first, the state trooper, Hugh Grant, used a stun gun on Al-Hashem, but after a violent clash the policeman fired live ammunition killing him.

Colonel Frank Milstead, announced: “It was a vicious encounter… He [the policeman] was in a fight for his life.”

The US police published a video showing Al-Hashem fighting with the policeman, and at one point Al-Hashem threw the policeman to the ground. The video does not show the point when the policeman shot the Qatari citizen.

US authorities claim that Al-Hashem had encountered the police several times recently, and trespassed at the Islamic Community Centre of Tempe, days before his death.

According to Associated Press, Al-Hashem was a student at Arizona University and it is unclear when he entered the US.