Source: Police shooting fatal case in bizarre twist | The Standard
BY REX MPHISA
SOME Beitbridge police officers believed to have shot and killed a local man, allegedly approached a traditional healer in the border seeking to be cleansed against avenging spirits, the deceased’s family has claimed.
Unbeknown to them, the person they approached is a relative of the deceased Abel Gumbo. He chased them away.
Wellington Moyo, who is the Gumbo family spokesman, said his grandmother told family members some men identifying themselves as men responsible for the shooting approached her.
“I can confirm my grandmother was approached by those men. She turned them away after telling them she was Abel’s relative and in mourning,” Moyo said yesterday.
Gumbo, who died on the spot, is now known to have been shot by a plain clothes policeman, who mistook him for a wanted man identified only as Elvis who was later arrested that day on May 27.
His relatives want a murder charge filed against the police officer.
It is understood that police claim Gumbo was an armed robber facing them and going to shoot at them but they opened fire first.
A relative, who saw Gumbo’s bullet marks says the police claims are inconsistent with where he was hit.
“He was shot just above the left shoulder and the bullet came out through a similar position on right shoulder suggesting he was hit from the side,” said the relative.
“If he was facing them he would have been shot on the front of his body.
The officer commanding Beitbridge police district Chief Superintendent Tichaona Nyongo did not respond to questions as to when an inquest into the death of Gumbo would be held.
Moyo said he had made a report to Nyongo but was not supplied with any case reference number.
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