In a space of one week, the Malawi Police have been forced to release reports dismissing as untrue reports of them shooting at suspects in which two people died while another is battling for life at the ICU at Queen Elizabeth Central Hospital.
On Monday, 4 January 2021, the Malawi Police released a report denying wrongdoing in the attempted murder of Blessings Nyondo, a 23-Year-Old Polytechnic Student who was shot at on New Year’s Eve in Blantyre.
According to the family of Nyondo, he was shot at 10 times when he was going for cross over prayers in the commercial capital.
A report from the Police has, however, dismissed the story told by the family claiming that Nyondo was shot at as he was fleeing from a scene where he had committed a crime and had later tried to wrestle a gun from a security personnel of the MBC.
The police statement which has been signed by the national spokesperson of the Police James Kadadzera claims that Nyondo and two of his accomplices snatched a handbag from a woman and bolted from the scene before Nyondo jumped into a car belonging to MBC.
In the car, the statement alleges, Nyondo attempted to wrestle a gun from a security officer of MBC but he was overpowered. He then sneaked into the bushes of Njamba before being shot at in what the police call a way of ‘disabling him’.
The Police report has however been punched by the general public citing inconsistencies in it with people wondering how 10 bullets could be used just for disabling a person. The Police report has not indicated whether it is true or not that 10 bullets were used to disable him.
The Njamba shooting incident comes hot on the heels of another shooting in Bvumbwe, Thyolo, where two men were killed in cold blood by a Police Officer.
Police reports indicated that the two were shot at while attempting to wrestle a gun from a Police Officer. However, eyewitnesses have contradicted the police report indicating that the two people were shot at in different places.
