Police probe death of another officer in Mityana

Police in Mityana District in central Uganda are investigating circumstances under which one of their officers died near his home in the wee hours of Saturday morning.

Inspector of Police (IP) Patrick Nuwagaba, who has been the Officer in Charge of Kakindu Police Station in the district is said to have died at around 2am in what authorities believe is a suspicious car accident.

His body was found near one of the front tyres of his car and about 500 metres from his home at Mayirye Village in Kakindu Sub County, Mityana District.

“His car was involved in a suspicious accident. His body was found outside the car with a wound on the head. His gun was found near the body,” said the Wamala region police spokesperson, Ms Rachel Kawala.

Ms Kawala said the postmortem report will help detectives establish whether IP Nuwagaba was shot or his death was caused by the “suspicious car accident.”

IP Nuwagaba was reportedly travelling from a wedding ceremony, about a kilometer away from where he died.

Some locals told this reporter that they heard gunshots at around 2am when the officer is believed to have died.

“It was about 2am when bullet sounds woke me up from sleep. I remained in the house but moments later, I heard people screaming outside that the O/C was dead,” a neighbor told this reporter on condition of anonymity.

A police detective who also asked not to be named because he’s not authorized to speak to the media said they didn’t find any blood stains in the deceased’s car.

“His body had a wound on the chin. We also found some shells near the body,” the officer said.

Previous incident

This comes just four days after two officers were on December 7, 2021 killed in the same district by suspected thugs.

Cpl Alfred Oketch and PC Moses Kigongo attached to Busunju Police Station in Mityana District were attacked by unknown assailants after they responded to a crime incident in Sebobo Sekanyonyi Sub-county. The assailants hacked one of the police officers before disarming him.

“Our police officers were responding to an incident of mob ‘justice’ and theft, they met unknown assailants, one assailant first cut one police officer in the neck with a machete, later grabbed a gun from him and he used it to kill both officers and took away the two guns,” Ms Kawala said then and added that 15 suspects had been arrested.

Last month, a police officer in Soroti District was shot dead and his gun taken by unknown assailants.

Police released a statement indicating that at around 7pm, the deceased identified as Sgt Gideon Emuria was shot dead at Maroon quarters, while heading for his guard duties at the residence of Justice Alex Makayi Ajiji of Gulu High Court. The assailants escaped from the scene with his gun.

On October 16, 2021, a police officer was killed and two others left with injuries after suspected robbers raided a factory at Kigalama in Kassanda District along Mityana-Mubende road.