NAIROBI: A police officer was Sunday night shot dead by suspected thugs and robbed of his gun in a tragic botched robbery incident in Dandora area, Nairobi.
The corporal of Administration Police attached to a local police post was in the company of three others and had tried to arrest a suspect for questioning when he was shot.
According to police, the deceased and his colleagues were on patrol in the area when they came across a gang of three that was mugging and robbing residents.
The corporal chased and caught up with one of the suspects and tried to wrestle him to the ground but was shot in the chest and died on the spot.
“The officer did not know the suspect he was arresting was armed and when he grabbed him he went for his pistol and shot him at close range killing him on the spot,” said an officer aware of the incident.
And after the shooting, the killer grabbed the slain officer’s gun and escaped on foot. By the time his colleagues arrived there, the gunman with his accomplices had escaped on foot.
A major hunt was launched in the area but no arrest or recovery was made, police said.
The killing is the latest targeting police officers in Nairobi. Such cases have been on the rise in the city with gunmen obtaining illegal guns for use.
Elsewhere, two police officers are admitted to hospital after they were attacked and beaten up by patrons in a bar in a brawl in Muthangari area, Nairobi.
The officers had differed with other patrons who turned on them beating them senseless, police said. The two who are seconded to a VIP living in the area were later disarmed by the rowdy revellers as they tried to defend themselves.
The victims’ colleagues were called and took them to hospital in serious condition before recovering their two pistols from a thicket in the area.
Police said the two officers had been at the bar on Friday night before a brawl broke out in unclear circumstances.
“This degenerated to a physical fighting that left them with serious wounds. They are stable in hospital,” said a senior officer who attended the scene.
No arrest has been made because all the patrons who were present escaped as police arrived there.
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