Dozens of raids at hotels, construction sites and abandoned houses were conducted in an effort to find the assassin who shot a Turkish national dead at an outdoor café in Chisinau’s Râșcani sector on Wednesday, the Moldovan police said.  

At least 24 commercial centers, bus stations, markets, parks and garage complexes were searched, and over 700 persons were verified. Two people suspected of complicity in the assassination were detained, but the shooter still remains at large.

The police assure the public that the killing was not indiscriminate and therefore the shooter does not represent a threat to the public at large.  

Wearing a balaclava and riding an electric scooter, the assassin shot four shots from a pistol in the back and three others in the head of his target, a Turkish man lounging at a café in Râșcani.

The victim, 41, was an internationally wanted fugitive from justice. In May 2022, he was detained in Moldova to be extradited to the United Kingdom to serve a 21½-year sentence. The Moldovan authorities have received a total of four extradition requests, only for them to be dragged through court.