Twenty-three-year-old Blessings Nyondo has died days after he was shot following a scuffle with a police officer and a security officer.
His father has confirmed Nyondo’s death to the local media.
Nyondo, a Polytechnic student, was shot on December 31 last year and had been battling for life at the intensive care unit at Queen Elizabeth Central Hospital. According to published reports, Nyondo was found with eight bullet pellets in his body.
Last week, Nyondo’s family said the student, on the day of the shooting, was going to a crossover night and he encountered thugs attacking a woman.
Nyondo fled and later jumped into a Malawi Broadcasting Corporation vehicle which was carrying a police officer and a security officer. The security officer shot him believing he was one of the robbery suspects.
On Monday, 4 January 2021, the Malawi Police released a report denying wrongdoing in the shooting of Nyondo.
The police statement 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 the 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’.
Kadadzera further claimed that the woman who was mugged also arrived at the scene and identified Nyondo as one of the suspects.
