On June 24, 2018, a man took his camels to a livestock market for sale. One of his sons, however, protested the sale of one particular camel, given that it was expectant and proposed to his father to sell other camels.
The young man, together with one of his brothers, drove the expectant animal home, and the father, not content with his sons’ action, sought the assistance of two policemen to have the animal returned to the market.
The police pursued the brothers, caught them and demanded that they drive the camel back to the market. But they declined.
One of the police officers fired in the air to scare the two brothers and they surrendered. The policemen then fired a number of bullets at one of the boys and shot him in the legs, the shoulder and the abdomen. The second police officer also opened fire on the young man, hitting him fatally on the forehead.
Many people in the market, including the father of the two boys, heard the gunshots and rushed to the scene. The father of the deceased, saw his son dead and proceeded to cover his body with a sheet.
The officer in-charge of the police station and an investigating officer were called to the scene and arrangements were made for the body to be transferred to the regional referral hospital for a post-mortem examination, which was carried out on that very day.
A police officer who saw the body before post-mortem explained that the right leg of the deceased, the abdomen and the head, had injuries.
The officer, further, reported that the skull was open. The doctor, upon examination of the body, noted that the body had an injury of the skull, a laceration close to the eye and a bleeding wound in the abdomen.
The doctor quickly concluded that these were gunshot injuries and he announced that immediate cause of death was brain injury due to a gunshot.
The two police officers were arrested and detained at the nearby police station. The officer in charge, in his report, alleged that the deceased had a knife and that the two police officers had some injuries. But the investigating officer said he saw no knife at the scene. Another police officer said only three officers spoke of the presence of a knife, which knife was never recovered. The same police officer did not see any stones at the scene.
The investigating officer picked six spent cartridges from the scene and sent for ballistic investigations. Two guns were recovered from the police officers together with the unspent cartridge in each of them. The records of the guns and ammunition issued to each of these police officers were also obtained.
The ballistic expert was to determine if the guns recovered from the police officers were capable of discharging the spent cartridges obtained at the scene, if the guns had discharged any ammunition in the recent past and whether the spent cartridges obtained were actually discharged by the guns in question. The expert discovered that both guns were complete in all their component parts and their magazines were in good working order.
Each of the guns was successfully test fired using three rounds of ammunition and the test cartridges and bullets were recovered for comparative analysis. The expert established by comparative analysis that the six spent cartridges were all fired from the guns in question and these were the guns issued to, and recovered from, the policemen, who had shot at the young man. This finding was informed by sufficient matching ejector markings, breech face markings and firing pin indentation markings.
The first accused police officer, in his defence, admitted that he was at the scene, and that that morning, he was assigned, together with the second accused, to go on a patrol in the animal market. He further admitted that they were each armed with a rifle.
While in the market, a man went and reported to them that one of his camels had been stolen. The man then led them to where the suspected thief was driving the camel. And indeed they saw two young men riding a camel into a forest and when they got near them, they stopped them and told them to ride back the animal.
One of the men (victims), however, picked stones and hurled them at the policemen and he threatened them saying that if they wanted blood, they should get near to him. The young man then hit the first police officer on the leg.
The officer shot a bullet in the air and warned the young man to stop throwing stones at them. He did not stop but continued throwing stones at the officers. He tried to arrest him but he threw a club at him that hit him on the forehead, causing him to lose consciousness.
When he regained consciousness, he saw his colleague on the ground and the young man with a knife in his hands about to stab the police officer. At this point, he decided to shoot at the young man, prompting him to fall down. The bullet got him in the head. He also noticed that the knife was besides the young man and the second police officer then collected the knife.
The second police officer, in his defence, gave an account similar to that of his colleague, although with some alterations. He stated that on the day in question, at about 8am, they were approached by an old Somali man, who requested for their help, given that a thief had stolen one of his camels.
He pointed at the direction the thief had taken and led them there. And about 100 metres away, they saw two young men riding a camel. They shouted at them, telling them to return the camel. The young men defied their orders, saying they would neither stop nor return the camel.
One of the young men challenged the officers saying that whoever wanted blood should get near him, as he kept hurling stones at them. He (the police officer) was hit by the stones on the knees and abdomen.
He reported seeing his colleague hit on the forehead with a club and falling down unconscious. He then shot in the air to prevent the young man from getting the firearm of his colleague.
He further narrated that the young man was joined by his other colleague and the two attacked him, whereupon he fell on his back. The young man then drew a knife from his waist and advanced towards him, aiming to stab him. He then cried out to his fellow officer, who then shot one of the young men in the head.
To be continued
