Image of Russian envoy’s killer wins World Press Photo Award

Associated Press photographer Burhan Özbilici has won the 2017 World Press Photo competition for his image of a gun-wielding off-duty Turkish police officer standing over the body of Russia’s ambassador Andrei Karlov, whom he had just fatally shot.

 image was part of a series titled "An Assassination in Turkey” that also won the Spot News - Stories category. The photos were captured in the moments before and after police officer Mevlüt Mert Altıntaş drew a handgun and shot Karlov at a photo exhibition in Ankara on Dec. 19, 2016.

In the winning photo, the gunman, wearing a suit and tie, stands defiantly, pistol in his right hand pointed at the ground and with his left hand raised, his index finger pointing upward. The ambassador’s body lies on the floor just behind him.

Jury chair Stuart Franklin called Özbilici’s image "an incredibly hard-hitting news photograph.”