KNYAZHYCHI , Ukraine, Dec. 5 (UPI) — Five police officers were shot and killed by fellow officers in a shootout near Kiev when undercover officers were mistaken for burglars, an Interior Ministry official said.
The incident Sunday night in Knayazhychi, a small village near the capital, began when a burglar alarm went off in a home next to a building under a stakeout by two undercover police officers. Police arrived and arrested the undercover officers, believing them to be the suspects. The undercover pair’s backup unit then arrived to rescue them. Five officers were killed in the resulting gun battle involving automatic weapons.
Anton Herashchenko, an Interior Ministry spokesman, said the three suspects who provoked the burglar alarm fled in two vehicles after hearing the gunfire, but were arrested in Kiev.
The prosecutor in the Kiev region denied rumors of a sixth person killed in the gun battle.
Khatia Dekanoidze, former national police chief, described the incident as a “heartbreaking tragedy.”
