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A new video shows how calm, cool and unsuspecting assassin Mevlut Mert Altintas was in the moments before he pulled out a semi-automatic weapon from his black suit jacket and fatally shot Russia’s ambassador to Turkey in the back.
The 22 year old could have passed for a character in a movie, looking sharp in a black suit as he strolled the art gallery floor where ambassador Andrei Karlov stood behind a lectern, giving a speech to a group of journalists and art aficionados.
The video shows Altintas, an off-duty police officer, calmly adjust his jacket and even reach inside to touch his holster once, but at that moment he doesn’t take out his weapon, and clasps his hands back together, standing at attention as a security officer would.
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And then, Altintas slowly moves again. He seems to look at the artwork on the walls around him and then he reaches into his suit jacket again, only to return to his poised stance. He touches his nose, as if giving the final sign that he is about to commit murder, reaches back into his jacket, and this time draws his firearm and shoots the ambassador in the back.
Shots are heard on the video and then the camera cuts out.
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When he entered the art exhibition, Altintas set off the metal detector at the security check because he was carrying a gun, according to the pro-government Sabah Daily. But he was allowed in after he showed his police identification.
Before special forces moved on Altintas and shot him dead, he shouted in Turkish: “Don’t forget Aleppo! Don’t forget Syria!” He then warned journalists filming the event: “Stand back! Stand back! Only death will take me out of here. Anyone who has a role in this oppression will die one by one.”
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There have been many questions raised about whether Altintas, who reportedly came from a secular family, had become radicalized. It appeared it was a planned attack as reports say Altintas staked out the building a week before the murder.
Russian media on Tuesday portrayed Altintas as a coward for shooting the ambassador in the back and not confronting him.
RELATED: In Turkey, thousands arrested as chants of “Allahu Akbar” rise from the streets
“The murderer was afraid to look him in the eye,” read the banner front-page headline on pro-Kremlin paper Izvestiya above a photograph of Karlov speaking with his killer lurking in the background.
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Tensions between Russia and Turkey have run hot since Turkey downed a Russian jet in 2015, but the sides have smoothed things over. Both Russian president Vladimir Putin and Turkey’s Recep Tayyip Erdogan called the attack a “provocation” aimed at sabotaging ties between the two countries.
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