A cigarette smuggler has been shot dead by a Lithuanian border guard during a chase near the Belarusian border, the State Border Guard Service (VSAT) reported on Sunday.
The Police have opened a pre-trial investigation into the incident, and the VSAT is also conducting an internal probe, its spokesman Giedrius Mišutis has said.
According to the VSAT report, the incident took place at around 21:00 on Saturday after border guards received information about a suspected smuggling case near the village of Paudrionys in Šalcininkai District, bordering Belarus.
A VW Passat was spotted driving along the road. Its driver ignored border guards’ instructions to stop, sped up, and fled the scene. The border guards then started their chase. Another uniformed border guard was nearby on the road and the VW Passat driver allegedly tried to hit the officer with his car as he sped in that direction. At the last moment, the officer avoided being run over.
To stop the fleeing smuggler, the border guard fired one shot from his service weapon into the tire of the fleeing car. The car stopped after the shot and the driver was found dead with a gunshot wound, the VSAT said.
Later on, bundles of suspected contraband cigarettes were found inside the vehicle.
The VSAT chief General Rustamas Liubajevas told journalists later that the deceased was a 44-year-old Vilnius resident who had been punished for smuggling before. The officer who shot the man has been working for the service for more than 15 years, he said.
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