The Cairo Prosecution unit detained a police officer on Tuesday, after he was accused of shooting a worker in Al-Khalifa district in Cairo over a personal argument.

Preliminary investigations say that the police officer’s wife had an argument with the worker, leading the officer to intervene and shoot him.

The worker was transferred to the Ahmed Maher hospital, where his relatives and friends gathered, protested, and demanded the officer be prosecuted.

The suspected officer, who is part of the Dar Al-Salam police station, was not on duty during the incident.

The Ministry of Interior has not released a statement on the shooting, but the ministry’s media office said that the police officer had been suspended from work and will be interrogated by the prosecution.

Since the beginning of 2016, there have been a string of cases of police abuse against civilians. However, the Ministry of Interior has repeatedly denied accusations of systematic and widespread abuses of state power.

Last week, a similar incident took place on 4 September, when a microbus driver was shot at the hands of a non-commissioned police officer.

At the end of August, a microbus driver was killed by a police officer after an argument.

According to El Nadeem Center for the Rehabilitation of Victims of Violence’s monthly report for police violation, there were allegedly 12 deaths in August: six people were killed at checkpoints or by non-commissioned police officers, five in airstrikes, and one person was tortured to death in prison.