MAKARATZIS v. GREECE JUDGMENT 13 or three gunshots were fired; they were not fired in my direction, because we were very close to the Skoda ... Perhaps the car was hit in the process, I don’t know. I am not in a position to know at which stage the victim was hit; probably during the chase ...” 4. Mr Davarias “... The shots fired at the petrol station were for intimidation. I didn’t see any shots fired at the car, the shots were fired towards the car but in the air, that is, the bullets went up in the air. I don’t know the [police officers] who fired. I had never seen them before. I know Markou and Kasoris. The police officer who climbed up on to the veranda didn’t shoot; he threw a pot. We are bound by our duty and have to follow orders when it comes to the areas we are patrolling, but we don’t always follow them and often go on our own initiative to the scene of incidents like this one where colleagues are in danger and all manner of things have happened in the past. The entire operation at the petrol station lasted ten to fifteen minutes; the Skoda had stopped along the kerb at the petrol station. I parked on the right, I arrived almost at the same time as the men in the first police car, and the rest got there immediately afterwards, one after the other. All the men were holding weapons in their hands. Usually all police cars have a light machine gun. After I got there I took cover behind a column. We called to the driver to get out of the car, and then the shooting began. I don’t remember even approximately how long afterwards the shooting began. The victim made some movements in the car. The movements he made while he was unlocking the car and all his other movements could have been seen by us as movements to get his weapon out from a holster under his arm, or to take out a hand grenade. At the junction of Kalamakiou and Posidonos Streets I didn’t notice any shots being fired at the right-hand side of the Skoda, only the ones fired at the tyres on the left-hand side. The first photograph shows that the tyres on the left-hand side are burst, the second one shows that the ones on the right are burst. As to the injury to [the applicant’s] right foot, it is possible that a bullet that was fired at the tyres ricocheted and penetrated through the metal plate of the car, which is only a few millimetres thick. There are bullets that can pierce metal plates of double thickness. In those cars there is no chassis. There are only plain metal plates, which can be pierced by a ricocheting bullet: the victim may have been hit in the buttock in this way. He may have been hit in the armpit area in the same way. At some point I saw him leaning towards the seat; I thought he might have been hit and I shouted.” 5. Mr Mastrokostas “I am the petrol station attendant. I was in front of the pump, filling up. Suddenly, I saw the Skoda slowly coming up and stopping next to me, with the front facing the street as you can see in the photograph. The driver was not moving. Then the police cars arrived; the policemen were shouting, ‘Move out of the way, move out of the way!’. I left the pump and went inside, 4 to 5 metres away, and the owner and I moved to an area further at the back. There is a second door, and we went through to the workshop. When I went inside the store I heard gunshots. There was chaos. More gunshots were fired. They were firing, but I don’t know in which direction. I couldn’t see anything. The pumps were next to the store; if they had fired towards the car the bullets would also have hit the pumps. I think someone went up on to the veranda and threw a pot down. I saw it because I had gone out the back but I didn’t go close. I couldn’t see anything and I didn’t witness the arrest or see whether they shot him.