Octogenarian Athens shooter acted in 'protest and despair', lawyer says
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People gather outside the Athens’ Court of Appeal following a shooting incident that left several wounded, in Athens, Greece, April 28, 2026. Sotiris Dimitropoulos/Eurokinissi via REUTERS THIS IMAGE HAS BEEN PROVIDED BY A THIRD PARTY. NO RESALES. NO ARC
ATHENS, April 29 (Reuters) - An 89-year-old gunman arrested for wounding five people in two shootings in Athens on Tuesday acted in "protest and despair" against Greek public services, his lawyer said on Wednesday.
The man opened fire with a shotgun at a branch of Greece’s EFKA social security agency, wounding an employee in the leg before travelling by taxi to a court building where he fired several more shots, lightly wounding four female court clerks.
He was later arrested in a hotel in the city of Patras, some 200 km (124 miles) from Athens.
"It was an act of protest and despair," his lawyer, Vassilis Noulezas, told Reuters.
Noulezas said the man worked for 40 years as an engineer in Chicago and was previously hospitalised at a psychiatric clinic in Athens. He had applied for a supplementary pension in Greece but his request was rejected, he said.
A public prosecutor on Wednesday charged the man with attempted murder and illegal possession of a gun.
Citizen Protection Minister Michalis Chrysochoidis late on Tuesday admitted that there were security gaps at some court buildings but that Greece was a safe country overall.
EFKA workers walked out on Wednesday to protest over security after the shooting incident, which they said they viewed as another act of "people's frustration" over understaffed public services.
(Reporting by Renee Maltezou and Angeliki Koutantou; Editing by Hugh Lawson)
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