A devastated father fought an Albanian police commissioner on the beach after the cop allegedly crashed his boat into his 7-year-old British daughter, killing her.
The girl, Jonada Avdia, a British-born citizen, was killed on Tuesday while playing in the ocean when she was hit by a speedboat’s propeller off Potam Beach in Albania. The boat was driven by officer Arjan Tase while he was off-duty, according to reports.
When Tase parked his boat on the shore right after the fatal crash, her father Bedlar Avdia confronted his daughter’s alleged killer and a brawl ensued, photos shared by Albania’s former prime minister Sali Berisha show, the Daily Mail reported.
The cop allegedly drove the craft into waters designated exclusively for swimmers.
“I was bathing together with my daughter near the shore, I saw a white boat with two people on board,” Avdia, an Albanian native, reportedly told local news outlets.
He said the boat parked briefly on the shore where a woman got off and more women and children boarded before taking off in the direction of he and his daughter.
“It came in our direction and came at hellish speed and separated me and the girl,” he said
“I dove down under the water and the craft hit my daughter with the engine part, cutting her all over.”
Tase, the chief of police in the city of Elbasan, was later arrested and was due in court in the city of Vlora Friday.
Investigators claim the cop was transporting members of his family from Porto Palermo to Potam — a roughly 5-mile distance — when the crash occurred.
Law enforcement officials said Tase plowed through an area clearly designated for swimmers with marked buoys to drop family members off before pulling away and hitting young Jonada just 15 feet from the shoreline.
The boat’s propeller blades “caused serious injuries that led to immediate loss of life,” a police spokesman told local outlets.
Tase has been charged with “negligent homicide” and 15 police officers who were supposed to be guarding the beach that day have been fired, the Daily Mail reported.
The incident sparked protests in the capital city of Tirana, where demonstrators demanded the resignation of the country’s Minister of Interior Bledar Çuçi, Director General of the State Police Gledis Nanos, and Tourism Minister Mirela Kumbaro, according to Albania Daily.
Kumbaro told Albania Daily that she blames Tase in the tragedy and called for a maximum sentence in his case.
“An angel is no longer among us because of the stupidity of a man who broke every law, every rule and every norm with tragically irreversible consequences,” she said.
“With awareness that there are no words to serve as a consolation for the parents, the family for the tragedy they suffered, the request goes to justice to do its job, without compromise, with maximum punishment for anyone who breaks the law.”
The head of Albania’s Democratic Party, Sali Berisha, claimed that the boat had been previously used for drug trafficking.
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