Kumasi Armed Robber Dies In Gun Battle

A suspected robber was killed early yesterday during a gun battle with a police patrol team on the Nkawie-Kumasi road. Two others suspects managed to escape. The suspects were believed to have gone on robbing spree, stealing goats and sheep in the Nkawie area of the Atwima district of Ashanti, Chief Superintendent Paul Siaw Frimpong, the Ashanti regional police crime officer, said that the police were on patrol at about 1:30am when they saw a taxi, with registration number AS 7025 P, emerging into the main road from the Besease road.

The patrol ordered the driver to stop, but the vehicle sped away and its occupants began shooting at the police. Chief Superintendent Frimpong said the police returned fire and a gun battle ensured. The driver of the fleeing vehicle eventually lost control of it, as a result of which the vehicle veered off the road and hit a signpost.

The occupants kept up on the barrage of gunfire when they came out of the vehicle. However, he said after one of them fell a few meters away and died on the spot, the others fled. He said that a search conducted on the vehicle revealed three live goats and two sheep, their mouth sealed with tape. The body of the deceased has been deposited at the Komfo Anokye Teaching hospital (KATH) while the animals and the taxi are in police custody.