CAIRO, May 9 (Aswat Masriya) – East Cairo Prosecution ordered on Monday the release of a police officer accused of shooting and injuring a microbus driver last month.  

The release order came as a reconciliation was reached between the officer and the driver. The prosecution previously charged the police officer with attempted murder.

The prosecution investigated witnesses who recounted that the policeman was in a microbus when the victim crossed his path in another microbus. A fight broke out between both men leading the policeman to shoot at the victim, injuring him.

The accused police officer said during investigations that he had no intention of shooting at the driver, but the victim and other people tried to take his weapon by force, which led to the unintentional shooting.  

Several cases of police violence have been reported over the past month, causing public outcry.

In late April, a low-ranking officer shot and killed a tea vendor and injured two more people after a quarrel over his refusal to pay for a cup of tea, in the upper-class Eastern Cairo neighbourhood of Rehab.

Just one day after the incident, President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi stressed the importance of deterring "irresponsible" police behavior on the streets.

On Feb. 18, a policeman shot dead a driver in the al-Darb al-Ahmar neighbourhood in a fight over the cost of loading goods.

The incident sparked public outrage at the police and hundreds took to protest in Cairo's streets after the killing, in an expression of anger that has become rare in the past few years.

The policeman was sentenced to 25 years in prison.

While human rights workers, activists, and even non-politicised civilians have been increasingly calling out on police brutality over the past few months, the interior ministry maintains that these are "isolated incidents" that do not reflect on the entire ministry. 

Police brutality was one of the triggers of the Jan. 25, 2011 Uprising, sparked by protests on Police Day in Egypt aimed to draw attention to the police's use of excessive, at times fatal, force.