Dr. Leila Vaseghi, governor of Shahr-e Qods, West Tehran Province, said in a video, posted on Iran Newspaper on Twitter on December 1, 2019, that the protesters thought the police was getting its orders to shoot at them “from above” while the orders to open fire had actually come from her. She added that one of the protesters who stormed the governor’s building opened his clothes and said: “Shoot me, if you can.”

Dr. Leila Vaseghi: A small number of people, maybe five or six, where here. Instead of standing in front of the door – when they saw the multitudes getting close in anger – they were afraid and they moved back towards the gate to the building. [The protesters] smashed the door and got in. one of them opened his clothes, just like that, and said: “Shoot me, if you can.” They thought that the police was getting the order to open fire from above, but in fact, we had given the order to open fire. I said [to the policemen]: Whoever passes the door to the governor’s building – shoot him!

[…]