Video shows policeman pacing in background before assassinating Russian ambassador
WARNING DISTRESSING CONTENT: Video of the off-duty officer pacing and adjusting his holster twice before assassinating the Russian ambassador in front of journalists has emerged.
Gunman Mevlut Mert Altintas, 22, shot and killed Andrei Karlov while the ambassador was giving a speech Monday night at an art gallery opening in Turkey.
The terrifying video was posted to Twitter by a journalist and shows Altintas in a smart suit pacing back and forth and swaying from side to side.
Mr Karlov was several minutes into a speech when Altintas touched his holster. He did not pull out his gun then and instead clasped his hands together.
Altintas slowly paced over to stand on the opposite side of Mr Karlov, where he shot and killed the ambassador.
Here, he reached into his holster a second time, pulled out his semi-automatic gun, aimed and fired eight shots at Karlov from behind.
The gunman then shouted, "Allah Akbar! Do not forget Aleppo!".
He then switched to Turkish and yelled: "Don't forget about Syria, don't forget about Aleppo. All those who participate in this tyranny will be held accountable".
Altintas was "neutralised" at the scene and later died of his wounds.
The Interior Minister Suleyman Soylu said the shooter had been serving in Ankara's riot police unit for the past two-and-a-half years and had used his police ID to enter the gallery with a gun.
"Today in Ankara as a result of an attack the Russian ambassador to Turkey Andrei Karlov received wounds that he died from," a Russian foreign ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said in televised comments.
Moscow declared the attack as a "terrorist act” and it came after days of protests in Turkey over Russia's role in Syria.
Rogue policeman
Ankara mayor Melih Gokcek speculated on his official Twitter account that the policeman may be linked to the group of exiled preacher Fethullah Gulen, who is blamed for the July coup aimed at toppling President Recep Tayyip Erdogan.
It is not yet clear whether the assassin was acting alone and no group has claimed responsibility.
But it will add further to jitters in Turkey, which has been rocked by a wave of deadly bomb attacks carried out by Islamic State jihadists or Kurdish militants.
The attempted coup has led to a massive crackdown on so-called Gulenists and opponents of the increasingly authoritarian president.
Burhan Ozbilici attended the exhibition where Russia’s ambassador to Turkey was assassinated and recounted the moments of chaos in the lead up to the brutal murder.
“The event was routine enough, the opening of an exhibit of photographs of Russia, so when a man on stage pulled out a gun I was stunned and thought it was a theatrical flourish,” he said.
“Instead, it was a coolly calculated assassination, unfolding in front of me and others who scrambled, terrified, for cover as the trim man with short hair gunned down the Russian ambassador.
“People screamed, hid behind columns and under tables and lay on the floor. I was afraid and confused, but found partial cover behind a wall and did my job: taking photographs."
The shooting came on the eve of a crucial meeting between the Turkish, Russian and Iranian foreign ministers on the Syrian conflict.
And at the exact moment of the attack, Turkey's Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu was on a plane flying to Moscow for Tuesday's tripartite talks.
Moscow and Ankara remain on opposite sides of the conflict - with Ankara backing rebels trying to topple Moscow's ally President Bashar al-Assad.
