Lance Corporal Sampson Yaw Arthur
A police patrol team patrolling Kintampo-Tamale Highway on Sunday night shot and killed one of their own, Lance Corporal Sampson Yaw Arthur, who was said to be escorting a Metro Mass Transit bus with registration number GE 6402-14 to an unknown destination.
The policeman, who was wielding a rifle, was killed in a case of mistaken identity.
Three others, including an eight-year-old girl, Cynthia Ayaaba, Kwabena Sarfa, 44, and Guruson Bashiru, 28, also sustained gunshot wounds and are currently receiving treatment at the Kintampo Government Hospital.
The police patrol team is said to have received a distress call from passengers around 2:30am about a robbery between Kawampe and Gulumpe.
They proceeded to the scene and found 20 cars parked in a row and being searched by the armed robbers.
The armed robbers opened fire on the patrol team upon seeing them and the police also returned fire and managed to proceed to a distance, stopped and returned to the scene.
A source said when the police returned to the scene after dodging the armed robbers’ fire, they saw a man in mufti with a riffle among the passengers and so mistook him for one of the armed robbers and shot him in the thigh.
Later, the driver of the Metro Mass bus with registration number GE 6402-14, Eric Lawson, approached the police patrol team and informed them that the man they shot was a police escort in the bus.
He told members of the patrol team that when they had the information about the armed robbery attack, the policeman (escort) dropped from the bus and weaved his way onto the scene ahead of the bus at the blind side of the armed robbers so he (driver) was stunned to hear that he had been shot.
Three injured persons were rushed to the Kintampo Government Hospital, but the policeman was pronounced dead upon arrival at the hospital.
Members of the patrol team later combed the bushes around the crime scene but the armed robbers escaped.
Eleven empty AA shells and one AK 47 riffle with registration number 172194 and 34 rounds of ammunition were retrieved from the bush.
The riffle is believed to belong to the policeman who was killed.
The armed robbers succeeded in robbing the passengers of unspecified amounts of money and made away with mobile phones.
Regional Police Commander, DCOP Techie-Poku and Regional Crime Officer, Superintendent Nana Kwaku-Duah, yesterday, visited the crime scene.
Nana Kwaku-Duah was, however, not able to give detailed account of the incident during a telephone interview with DAILY GUIDE.
From Daniel Y Dayee, Kintampo
danielyaodayee@yahoo.com