Altercation Between Patrol Officers and Four Young Men

On April 21, an altercation occurred in Stepanavan between newly appointed patrol officers of the Lori region and local citizens.

According to shamshyan.com, at around 8:30 PM, a patrol officer of the Traffic Police of Lori region, 34-year-old Arman Khachatryan, reported to the Stepanavan Police Department that earlier that day, around 7:00 PM, he and junior patrol officer, 25-year-old Hayk Hovhannisyan, had stopped an Opel vehicle for violating traffic rules near the beginning of a bridge in Stepanavan.

Sources indicate that Khachatryan also reported that the driver of the Opel did not comply with the legal order to stop and continued driving. After that, they pursued him and managed to stop him at the entrance of Lejan village.

When they stopped the vehicle, the driver, 38-year-old Vardan Gevorgyan from Lejan village, and his passengers—35-year-olds Karen Gevorgyan and Aren Gevorgyan, as well as 40-year-old Arthur Sarukhanyan—got out of the car, verbally assaulted the officers, and then began to strike them with their hands and feet.

Some time later, several groups of officers from the Stepanavan Police Department and the Traffic Police of Lori region apprehended V. Gevorgyan and A. Sarukhanyan and brought them to the Stepanavan Police Department.