Ukraine police officers face murder charges in boy's death

June 4 (UPI) -- A Ukraine court jailed two police officers Tuesday and charged them with premeditated murder in the accidental shooting death of a 5-year-old boy.

The officers, Volodymyr Petrovets and Ivan Prykhodko, wounded the boy as they were firing at cans in the backyard of an east Ukraine home last week. Authorities say they'd also been drinking. Tuesday, the court ordered they be held in pretrial detention without bail for two months.

The officers were initially charged with conspiracy and inflicting bodily harm, but prosecutors hiked the charge to premeditated murder after the boy died in a hospital.

Police initially said the boy had fallen asleep outside and hit his head on the pavement. It wasn't until later they found the gunshot wound.

An attorney for the boy's family said the gun was fired by the son of one of the officers, and that investigators didn't test their alcohol levels to determine if they were impaired.

Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelenskiy, who took office only last month, said the guilty "will be punished in accordance with justice."

"This tragedy should become a lesson," Zelenskiy said. "Those who are charged with providing for the safety of the citizens must constantly remember their responsibility."

Criticisms about the way the investigation was handled led to the resignation of Kiev's police chief and regional police chief.