Warning Shots Get Residents Panicky

Boniface Keakabetse | Monday September 21, 2015 16:39

Officer commanding Abraham Kesupetswe says only one gunshot was fired into the air to warn a 25-year-old burglary suspect who was resisting arrest. The suspect had been on the wanted list for some time.

The rumour mill was on overdrive after the Markus Filling Station incident alleging that a police officer had shot at an unarmed man before arresting him.

Gossipmongers relate how the police officer missed his human target injuring a scavenging dog with the stray bullet at a restaurant nearby.

When The Monitor arrived at the scene the incident was a hot topic. However, the police had already taken away the suspect in a van. A stone’s throw from the filling station an eyewitness narrated how the stray bullet ricocheted off the dog onto the wall in front of his eyes.

Others claimed that actually the bullet from one of the shots wounded the suspect, as they pointed to bloodspots on the pavement of the filling station.  

“I was standing there when out of nowhere a gunshot was fired.  When I looked at that direction I saw one guy who always looks smart and sexy holding a gun,” said the man, who did not want to be named.

The police official however  says it is all hogwash adding that his men only fired one bullet into the air to warn the suspect who was resisting arrest.

He said that the police who were following the suspect then overpowered him and took him away. According to Kesupetswe, it was during the scuffle that the suspect injured himself when he fell on the pavement, resulting in spots of blood, but said the injury was minor.

Kesupetswe added that the 25-year-old suspect who hails from Shashe ward in Maun had been on the run and was wanted in connection with a series of burglary cases in Gantsi.

Kesupetswe said the man was handed to the Gantsi police immediately after arrest.

Efforts to get a comment from Gantsi police were futile as the station commander was said to be out on Friday.