Police officers face charges in LGBTQ activist’s death
The policemen shown in a video hitting LGBTQ activist Zak Kostopoulos will face an examining magistrate Monday on charges of inflicting fatal bodily harm.
On September 21, the 33-year-old Kostopoulos had entered a jewelry store and the owner thought he was a robber. The owner, along with another shop owner, kicked Kostopoulos repeatedly in the head and body as he crawled out of the jewelry store through broken glass from a shattered display window.
Some of the policemen who came to the scene also hit Kostopoulos, at least once as he lay motionless on the ground.
The autopsy, published in November, concluded that Kostopoulos died of a heart attack as a consequence of repeated blunt trauma and that he was not under the influence of drugs or alcohol.
Kostopoulos’ family asked Friday for the charges against the two shopowners to be changed from manslaughter to first-degree murder.
The policemen are expected to be granted a few days to prepare their statements.
