Thugs Killed In City Chase

By Davis Weddi, Geoffrey Kamali and A.G. Musamali THE Police yesterday gunned down four thugs in a two-hour fire exchange with heavily armed robbers at Kisugu, a Kampala suburb. A Police officer and six civilians were admitted to city hospitals after they sustained injuries from stray bullets. Their identities could not immediately be established. A suspected robber who sustained bullet wounds in the neck was taken to Mulago Hospital. Three sub-machine guns, one of them a double-grip war rifle and two pump-action guns were recovered from the robbers after the shooting. The Police also recovered over 200 bullets, two mobile phones and sh3.46m in cash that the thugs had grabbed earlier. The phones rang persistently while the Police briefed the press yesterday afternoon. The Police recovered from two the thugs' bodies identity cards, one bore the name Tony Golooba, a businessman of Kampala and the other Badru Kazibwe, a technical engineer from Masaka. The Police said Golooba was one of Kampala's most wanted criminals who was recently freed from prison. Kampala's regional Police chief, Ahmed Wafuba, told reporters the robbers were a sophisticated group, whom he described as well-trained and determined to kill and escape. An angry Wafuba issued a strong warning to other thugs to surrender or risk being be killed. He said he would seek help from the UPDF if need arises. "It may sound stupid but I appeal to the criminals that the best way forward is that once they get caught up, they should surrender if they want to be given a second chance," he said. The robbers had grabbed the money from employees of Pearl Blankets on Kampala Road at the junction off Johnson Street. The employees were riding in a truck. The robbers then sped off towards Ternan Avenue near the Sheraton Hotel, joined Sezibwa Road and later Yusuf Lule Road at the Golf Course where they were first intercepted by a Police Patrol car. An exchange which ensued between Police and the robbers around this area left four civilians injured and their two vehicles damaged. Police blamed this on the thugs. The chase continued through Port Bell Road, onto 5th Street and 7th Street Industrial Area. They later entered the Namuwongo suburb from where heavy gunfire rocked the city. Wafuba said the robbers abandoned their get away car with a forged registration number, 702 UDS and grabbed another a saloon car, 443 UEC. The actual numbers of the vehicle they abandoned was UAB 450R reported robbed on May 24. The robbers hurled two stick grenades at the Police as they tried to escape towards Mutajazi where the Police cornered them. Wafuba said some collaborators of the robbers, among them boda-boda cyclists, had misguided Police Patrol cars that engaged the thugs during the chase. He said they had been marked some of the boda-boda stages and that the Police would arrest the suspected collaborators. Ends