Cairo - Essam Mohammed
It's been four years, since the dawn of 14 August 2013, which many considered it as the day changed Egypt's destination, in exchange of police's blood.
This day also changed the fate of Captain Ramy, he became a prisoner of a wheelchair after being injured in the operation of dispersal of the Rabaa' Al-Adawiya sit-in. However, Ramy considered his injure as an honor on his chest, in his speech delivered during the graduation ceremony of a new batch of police students last June, in the presence of Egypt's President Abdul-Fattah al-Sisi.
In interview with Arabs Today, Capt. Ramy Gamal recounts the first hours of the first time, which began with loudspeakers calling for everyone to walk through the safe passages, ending with bullets in the area under heavy dust from the flames of the fires.
"On the night of August 13, we knew that we would end sit-in in the morning, so that the wheel of the country would be able to walk again normal," he said.
"At dawn, we gathered and finished reviewing the plan. We identified the safe exit routes for the protesters. The leaders stressed the need to adhere to the utmost restraint, secure exit corridors and facilitate the exit of the protesters, but soon things changed on reality," Ramy added.
"We were stationed there at six in the morning, and we issued warnings to the protesters to go out, and we promised them a safe exit. We reject the use of violence as a means of settling conflicts.Indeed, a large number of them started to leave the area safely," he said.
"Demonstrators began to use violence against police forces, and police responded with tear gas," he said. "Demonstrators fired at us, leaving dozens of security forces injured," he said, adding we had to deal with any shooter, or a firearm, and we were told to deal with caution.
"There was an armored vehicle in front of me, and an officer standing next to me. He was hit in the arm, and we got him out of armored vehicle and I went up to the armored vehicle," Capt. Ramy said.
"Five minutes later, I felt my body stopped moving," he said. I was unable to carry the weapon, raise my arms or move my feet, I heard my colleagues calling me, but I could not answer them. I did not know where I was injured, so they managed to get me out of the armored vehicle and I was taken by ambulance to the police hospital in Nasr City," he explaind the situation in that day.
Rami was shot in the neck, targeted from a high area next to Rabia mosque directly, and the ministry agreed to travel to London for treatment with his mother.