Last Tuesday, an off-duty Egyptian police officer allegedly shot six Coptic Christians who were travelling on a train in Samallūt, a small town in the southern Egyptian province of Minya. An elderly man died in the attack.
While some government officials have been quoted in various reports as saying that the alleged shooter, ‘Āmir ‘Āshūr, has psychological issues, many Christians feel the attack was religiously motivated, particularly in light of the recent disputes between Christians and Egyptian security forces.
Egyptian coverage of the Samallūt train shooting continued on Monday, albeit on a smaller scale than previous days.
Al-Shurūq al-Jadīd carries a brief front page report, with more details on page four. The report claims that the testimonies of the victims, witnesses, and alleged perpetrator conflict one another. The paper says that while witnesses say there were nine shots, forensic experts found only four spent cartridges at the scene. For his part, ‘Āshūr says that he originally had thirty bullets, but that he returned 23 to investigators.
In addition to the conflicting stories regarding what the alleged perpetrator said or did not say at the time of the shooting, two witnesses, the husband of one of the victims, and another passenger all claim to have wrestled with the assailant.
The Egyptian government consistently labels those who have comitted sectarian crimes as being "mentally unbalanced," and this means that such accusations no longer hold their weight, according to opposition al-Wafd. However, the paper points out that the claim, in this case, does appear to be justified. Al-Wafd then prints statements by the accused’s family and neighbors, all of whom contend that ‘Āshūr has suffered from psychological problems since childhood.
