Violent protests in Greece after Romany boy shot by police

Clashes broke out Tuesday at a police station outside Greece's second-largest city of Thessaloniki as residents of a nearby Roma settlement protested the police shooting of a teenage driver during a chase over an unpaid gas station bill (AP Photo)

Protesters set fire to tires and an excavator vehicle on a nearby road and destroyed a police bus, while riot police responded with tear gas. Protestors also threw petrol bombs at police as reported by BBC (AP Photo)

These protests are a reaction to the shooting early Monday of a 16-year-old Roma youth who allegedly drove off from a gas station without paying the bill of 20 euros ($21). The teen, who was identified by relatives as a member of the Roma community, was hit in the head and hospitalized in critical condition in Thessaloniki. (AP Photo)

The police statement said the two shots were fired by a 34-year-old police officer to stop the vehicle when the driver attempted to ram one of the police motorcycles, “placing the lives of the police officers in immediate danger.” (AP Photo)

Panagiotis Ramos, who was protesting outside the courthouse and identified himself as a family friend of the wounded teenager, dismissed the police version.“It was a racist shot. It wasn't one, but two,” Ramos said. “The shot was straight. He was trying to finish him off.” (AP Photo)

A video from outside the court later went viral showing a man, identified as the man's father, being thrown to the ground, surrounded by riot police, as reported by BBC."And what if he didn't pay? Did they have to kill him?" his father told Greek media, adding that the boy had made a mistake and police should have arrested him at home. (AP Photo) (AP Photo)

About 6,000 people marched Tuesday night in Thessaloniki to mark the anniversary of the 2008 fatal police shooting of a teenager in Athens that sparked Greece’s worst riots in decades, and after the protest was over some set fire to trash cans and threw Molotov cocktails at police. Similar rioting occurred in Athens after the end of the anniversary march on Tuesday in which an estimated 5,000 people took part (AP Photo)

According to the Council of Europe as reported by BBC, the Roma (Gypsies)number around 270,000, are Greece's biggest minority. A number of Romany men have been fatally shot or injured by the police in similar incidents, as reported by the Guardian. Public buildings across Athens were colourful with graffiti after Monday’s incident which proclaimed: “It wasn’t the gas, it wasn’t money, the cops fired because he was Roma," as reported by the Guardian. (AP Photo)