Pokuase Police shoot suspected criminal

The Pokuase Police, last Wednesday shot and killed an alleged criminal who terrorised people on the Pokuase-Amasaman road in the Greater Accra Region.

The man, who usually hid in the bush, threatened his victims with a knife and snatched their bags, mobile phones and other belongings.

Briefing

Briefing the Daily Graphic, the Public Relations Officer of the Accra Regional Police Command, Deputy Superintendent of Police (DSP) Mrs Afia Tenge, said about 9:30 p.m. on October 1, 2018, a woman (identity withheld) who lives at Dobrogonor, a suburb of Amasaman, reported at the Pokuase Police Station that a man had attacked her.

The victim claimed she was sitting by the window of a Sprinter mini bus from Ofonkor towards Amasaman.

She said the traffic was slow and that when the vehicle reached a section of the road between the Rev. John Teye Memorial School and the ACP Junction, a tall man wielding a knife, suddenly emerged from the Pokuase Forest, snatched her hand bag that contained an unspecified amount of money, a Ghanaian passport and a mobile phone and bolted with it.

Shooting incident

Mrs Tenge said a police patrol team was immediately deployed to the area and that during a search, the team encountered the suspected robber emerging from the bush wielding a sharp knife.

On seeing the police advance towards him, he rushed to attack them.

Efforts by the police to disarm the suspect failed and, in the process, he sustained gunshot wounds in the left arm and the left thigh.

A search conducted on him led to the retrieval of four mobile phones, a bunch of keys, two ladies’ hand bags, a purse and a jack knife.

He was subsequently arrested and taken to the Amasaman Government Hospital where he was later pronounced dead.

His body has since been deposited at the Police Hospital morgue for preservation and autopsy.

Cases

According to Mrs Tenge, the Pokause Police had, since the beginning of this year, received 23 reported cases of bag snatching.

She advised passengers to keep their valuables intact from the sight of potential criminals, especially at traffic intersections, on lonely roads and when the movement of vehicles is slowed down by traffic.