Police have defended the fatal shooting of a young salon owner in Matugga, even as the family of the deceased demands justice, insisting he was wrongly killed.
Beatrice Balireta, the mother of Amon Tindyebwa, who was shot dead by police on Wednesday morning, says her son was innocent and had no links to criminal activity.
Tindyebwa was gunned down at around 2 am along the Kasangati–Matugga road while riding a motorcycle with his friend, Hamidu Ssetimba. Balireta described her son as peaceful, hardworking and well known in the community.
“I am shocked that my son was killed on suspicion of being a thief. He was known by many people in this area despite being in his early 20s. You cannot ask anyone here, and they tell you he was a bad person. I need justice for my son,” Balireta said.
Ssetimba, who was with Tindyebwa at the time of the shooting, said police officers intercepted them and accused them of being the robbers they had been waiting for, despite the pair allegedly not carrying any weapons. He said they tried to explain themselves, but the situation quickly escalated into a scuffle.
“In that scuffle, police fired bullets, and we realized Tindyebwa had been shot in the chest. Police insisted that we were robbers. They later called their colleagues, who came and took Tindyebwa’s body to the mortuary. I want to tell you that Tindyebwa was killed in cold blood by reckless police officers,” Ssetimba said.
Ssetimba explained that earlier in the night they had left Tindyebwa’s salon at around midnight and travelled to Matugga, where they met a friend identified as Dickson. The trio reportedly spent several hours talking before he and Tindyebwa set off for home.
“We later decided to ride the motorcycle home. We didn’t know that police officers had taken cover waiting for suspected robbers, whom they claimed were moving on a motorcycle. We did not have any lethal weapons,” Ssetimba said.
However, police maintain that the shooting occurred during an operation targeting suspected criminals in the area. Luke Owoyesigyire, the deputy Kampala Metropolitan Police spokesperson, confirmed the incident and said investigations are ongoing.
“We suspect that the deceased was among the criminals because we found machetes at the place where he was killed. Another person was also shot and injured. But this incident is being investigated,” Owoyesigyire said.
Friends and relatives of the deceased have rejected the police account. David Ssegawa, a friend of Ssetimba, said Tindyebwa operated both a salon and a clothing boutique located next to each other and was known in the area as a hardworking businessman.
“We all knew Tindyebwa as a salon operator, and he was a hardworking young man. He would leave the salon and go home. It has shocked us that the police killed him, yet he was with his friend. If police officers had listened to these people, Tindyebwa wouldn’t be dead,” Ssegawa said.
The time at which they were traveling was suspicious and again if they were intercepted by Police, they wouldn’t have resisted arrests because Police was carrying out operations to arrest some suspected robbers and unfortunately their encounter coincided with the robbers they were looking for and could’ve allowed Police to detend them as investigations goes on and released when found innocent.
Of course there was a scuffle. Why? In this country nowadays where everybody does as he or she wants to do, who would not feel very worried and shocked when in the deep night of a normal day travelling to go home, one meets people running out of the African bush with killer guns on their backs? These days modern police world wide is trained to use laser guns to subdue stubborn and violent suspects. They do not need to move with war armaments on their backs 24 hours. There is a special unit in the police force if the use of arms is necessary. The policeman or woman who shot Amon Tindyebwa must be pronounced, be arrested, and be prosecuted for 1st degree murder charges. It is a known fact of law that suspects are detained 24 hours and then released. That is what shoud have happened to Amon. The country of Uganda is no exception to such human rights laws. Those were civilized bygone days when the locals had the final say about keeping the peace 24 hours in their neighbourhood! These days it is terrible because the so called African Central government of Uganda has spread out its policing all over the country for political benefits for the few to mantain state power for themselves!