Police shoot, injure panga-wielding suspects

Kampala Metropolitan Deputy Police Spokesperson, Mr Luke Owoyesigyire

What you need to know:

  • The Kampala Metropolitan deputy police spokesperson, Mr Luke Owoyesigyire, told the media yesterday that the incident occurred on Tuesday night when thugs armed with pangas attacked the home of Mr Bruno Ssempijja, and cut him before making off with his phone.

Police in Wakiso District yesterday shot and disabled two machete (panga)-wielding suspects, who were allegedly attempting to break into different homes in Kikaya Zone in Bulenga, Wakiso District.

The Kampala Metropolitan deputy police spokesperson, Mr Luke Owoyesigyire, told the media yesterday that the incident occurred on Tuesday night when thugs armed with pangas attacked the home of Mr Bruno Ssempijja, and cut him before making off with his phone.

Mr Owoyesigyire added that the officers arrived at the scene when the suspects had moved to houses of Gladesi Mugerwa and Ronald Mutebi, a journalist, with the New Vision.

“Here, the officers found the thugs attempting to rob Mr Mugerwa and shot at them. Two of the four suspects sustained serious injuries, while the other two escaped from the scene. Those that sustained injuries were rushed to Mulago National Referral Hospital for further management,” he said.

Mr Owoyesigyire said upon searching the suspects, the officers recovered items including one HTC mobile phone,  white in colour, one  Nokia  mobile phone, blue in colour, one Samsung mobile phone, black in colour,  one Infinix mobile phone, black in colour, one Huawei mobile phone, black in colour, all suspected to have been stolen; two pangas, a torch and a stone.

Last week, police launched a software application dubbed UPF Mobi App to help the public to report criminal cases from their areas of residence.

The app has all contacts of different policing units countrywide.

“We would like to urge the general public to always have the numbers of their officers-in-charge of station. These can be found on the UPF Mobi App that is on the Google play store. Our officers, through the community liaison department, have also been told to reach out to members of the public and share these numbers for quick response,” Mr Owoyesigyire said.