Death of Another Child Due to Police Shooting; Police: 'We Implemented the Vehicle Control Law'

The shooting by police in Shushtar, Khuzestan province, resulted in the death of a 9-year-old child on Friday evening, June 9. The father of 'Morteza Delfzarghani' stated hours after the incident to the Jamaran website that 'the police opened fire on the car without any warning, and the bullet hit my child, killing him instantly.' Jafar Delfzarghani also mentioned the police's claim of arresting the shooter, saying: 'We were told that the shooter has been arrested, but we are still unaware of who has been detained.' Kamal Delfzarghani, the uncle of the deceased child, also told Jamaran that the car his brother and nephew were in belonged to a relative. He recounted that the car had previously been repaired by his brother. On the night of the incident, his brother and nephew went to his house for a settlement, but the car owner said the problem with the vehicle still persisted. As a result, the child's father decided to return the car. According to the uncle's statements, on their way back, the car owner reported to the police that 'his car had been stolen at gunpoint.' Morteza Delfzarghani, the deceased 9-year-old child in Shushtar, was killed when the police shot at them without any warning or siren. However, the statements from Shushtar police contradict the family's account. The police chief stated: 'No offense was committed, and the police acted according to the law.' According to Rouhollah Bigdeli, the police operation was initiated after a citizen reported a stolen vehicle to the provincial emergency number 110. This police official claimed that the shooting occurred after 'the driver ignored the police's stop commands,' and the operational team 'executed the weapon use law' without any illegal actions. The police chief of Shushtar stated that Jafar Delfzarghani, the father of the deceased child, 'has a criminal record with two instances of drug possession and one instance of car theft in 1995,' and is currently in custody. These claims emerged shortly after Jafar Delfzarghani's interview with Jamaran. The killing of children in vehicles by military forces in Iran has repeatedly occurred. Kian Pirfalak, a 10-year-old from Izeh, was one of the children killed during a shooting by Islamic Republic military personnel while he was in his father's car on November 16 of last year. The death of this 10-year-old child received global attention. Following this, the Islamic Revolutionary Court of Izeh arrested 'Mojahid Korkor' on charges of killing Kian Pirfalak and sentenced him to death. This verdict was rejected by Kian's family, who believed that the direct shooting by police forces caused their child's death. In early January 2023, a 12-year-old named Soha Etemadi was killed in Hormozgan province by direct fire from Islamic Republic forces while in her father's car. Mehrdad Moshavak, the deputy police chief of Tehran province, reacted to this incident by stating that 'officers suspected a Peugeot Pars vehicle with heavily tinted windows and ordered it to stop, and due to the driver's noncompliance with the stop command, they shot at the vehicle.' In March of last year, a similar incident occurred in Hormozgan province, where a 2-year-old child was killed due to shots fired by special forces at a family's vehicle. The head of the judiciary organization of the armed forces in this province stated that the reason for pursuing the vehicle was 'a report of suspicious activity,' but no 'prohibited items were discovered.' Mohsen Benimi, head of the judiciary organization of the armed forces in Isfahan province, stated that 'the police executed the vehicle control plan.' There has been widespread user reaction to the killing of another child by the Islamic Republic's forces.