A Police officer identified as CPL Agaba Richard attached to Mbarara Police station has been shot dead by unidentified thugs who later fled with his gun.
According to the Spokesperson for Criminal Investigations Directorate (CID) Charles Twine, the thugs ambushed the officer while he was responding to the scene of robbery where the said thugs had robbed people today at 0300am.
Corporal Agaba Richard was the OC Ruharo Police Station in Kamukuzi Division, Mbarara City and the incident happened at Kiyanja about a half kilometer from Mbarara High School.
The attackers according to Twine were two; one armed with a gun and another one with a panga.
Sources indicate that CPL Agaba received a report of robbery and responded alone using a motorbike only to find that a robbery had been successfully executed and the culprits had fled. In a courageous feat, the officer then summoned a vigilante to ride him on a motorbike to pursue the robbers.
But the robbers had vanished and were nowhere. As he was retiring back to his post, sources told us, Agaba fell into an ambush and the armed robber fatally shot him at close range before fleeing with the officers gun. His rider, though, survived the attack and fled unhurt.
Twine also confirmed the assertion by our sources that Agaba exhibited unusual courage in confronting criminals, and had a record of foiled robberies under his belt.
He said, the scene of crime has been cordoned off as investigations kick off to ascertain the motive behind the murder and The hunt is on to apprehend the killers, and possibly recover the gun before it is used to cause more mayhem.
Twine says, investigations have so far confirmed that the gun which the robbers used to kill Agaba was reportedly stolen from a security guard in Ibanda and has been used in several other incidents of robbery in the region.
It has also been established that security cameras on private premises near the scene of crime were off when the incident happened. The residents only switched on cameras after hearing the gunshots when it was already too late.