Greece: Roma community leaders call for calm after teen dies

By COSTAS KANTOURIS
Associated Press

THESSALONIKI, Greece (AP) — Leaders of the Roma community in northern Greece have appealed for calm as student and anarchist groups called rallies to protest the death of a Roma teenager. The 16-year-old was shot in the head during a police chase last week over an allegedly unpaid gas station bill. He had remained hospitalized in the northern city of Thessaloniki but succumbed to his injuries on Tuesday. A 34-year-old police officer charged in the case has said he fired his weapon to stop a pickup truck he and his colleagues were chasing but he had aimed at the tires, not the driver. The shooting led to days of protests in Thessaloniki, Athens and other parts of Greece.