On 3 September 2014, it was decided that the suspect, police officer Ahmet Şahbaz, was to be sentenced to 7 years and 9 months of imprisonment; consisting of a 1-year probation and 4 years and 2 months in prison.[14] However, on 8 December 2014, the Chief Public Prosecutor's Office of the Supreme Court of Appeals, requested the sentence to be changed as the defendant Şahbaz had committed "willful murder" by "targeting the group in front of him and deliberately shooting them".[15]