Two air guns, knives and housebreaking equipment were found in the car of five alleged robbers shot dead by police officers at Okahandja on Tuesday night last week, the Namibian Police announced yesterday.
In a statement released late yesterday afternoon, nearly a week after the incident, the police’s deputy inspector general for operations, major general Elias Mutota, said a murder case has been registered against the police officers involved in the deadly shooting, while a case of attempted murder and malicious damage to property has been registered against a sixth suspected robber, who managed to flee the scene of the shooting.
The names of the five men killed in the shooting were released in Mutota’s statement.
They are Abed Andreas, also known as ‘Koppe’, Flavianus Kaluwapa Endjala, also known as ‘Kalu’, Marius ‘Jackie’ Iipinge, Malakia Iiyambo Kotokeni, who was also known as ‘Brown’, and Erick Martin (‘Akawa’).
Mutota said the five men had previously been arrested and granted bail in a combined total of 24 criminal cases, involving charges ranging from armed robbery, housebreaking and theft, to attempted murder, possession of firearms and ammunition without a licence, illegal dealing in firearms, displaying of fake vehicle number plates and escape from lawful custody.
According to the report released by Mutota, the police received information about a planned armed robbery “by some notorious criminals to be carried out at a certain farm in Khomas”, and that the target of this planned robbery was then shifted to a gambling house at Okahandja.
Police officers responded to the information and pursued the suspects from the police roadblock between Okahandja and Windhoek to Okahandja, where the suspects allegedly disappeared.
Mutota said the suspects were later spotted at a gambling house near Okahandja’s municipal offices, “where a hot pursuit ensued within the Okahandja town”.
He added: “During the process the suspects allegedly shot at the pursuing police car, which triggered an exchange of fire. Before the car could come to a standstill, the officers allegedly saw one of the suspects jumping out of the vehicle and running into the nearby riverbed where he disappeared. Eventually when the vehicle of the suspects came to a standstill on the way to Nau-Aib location opposite a biltong shop, it was at this juncture that the police observed that five suspects were in the vehicle and were struck by the bullets during the shooting.”
When the five men’s vehicle was searched, housebreaking equipment, knives and two air guns were found, Mutota reported.
He also said a police vehicle had been shot at during the incident, and that the three police officers who were involved in the shooting did not sustain injuries during the exchange of fire.
With post-mortem examinations on the five men killed in the shooting completed, further investigations – including forensic investigations of the vehicles, cellphones and firearms involved, as well as the items found in the suspects’ vehicle – are still being carried out, Mutota said.
“This investigation is a gradual process which unfortunately cannot be rushed into so as to avoid incomplete facts. We, therefore, urge the public to allow the investigation process to continue unhindered,” he said.
He added that the unidentified suspect who jumped out of the moving vehicle and disappeared from the scene is still at large.
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