Police in Kampala has said the policeman, Ivan Wabwire, who on Friday shot to death an Indian money lender, Uttam Bhandari, was diagnosed with a mental condition six years ago. Patrick Onyango, the Kampala metropolitan police spokesperson, said that a decision was taken never to deploy Wabwire in areas where he needed a riffle.
“Due to the suspect’s medical conditions, Police management at CPS Kampala had taken a decision about six years ago not to arm the suspect with a gun and they have been deploying him in beats that doesn’t require him to be armed. His current deployment was at CCTV monitoring center,” Onyango explained.
Police have further said that due to limited accommodation, Wabwire was sharing a house with a fellow police officer, Police Constable Steven Mulambo. Wabwire picked the gun which Mulambo had left in the shared room to commit the crime.
“His housemate had worked at night, and didn’t return the gun to the armoury instead he went with it to their house and shortly, he got a call that his child was sick, he rushed to go and check on the child leaving the gun behind,” Onyango said.
Hunting Vodka: 0754649086 Police said Wabwire took that advantage, got the gun, went and misused it by shooting Uttam. “His roommate who signed for the gun PC Mulambo Steven has been arrested and detained at Kireka.”
Minutes before police’s explanatory statement, Museveni mourned Bhandari and also raised six questions regarding how Wabwire accessed the killer weapon. “All these mistakes are easily traceable. In this case, for instance, some questions immediately come up: How did an off-duty Police man, access a gun? Did he walk away from his guard post without permission with a gun to commit crime? How are the guns stored in the Police? Is there no security at the site where the victim was? Museveni said.
The head of state further asked why that local security allowed an armed person into the building who had no guard business there. Then, there is the question of the mental state of this Policeman. “Did he have a history of mental instability? If he had, why hadn’t the Police leadership noticed and acted appropriately?
Museveni said the answers to these questions may help us to plug the gaps in the security system. By press time, police was yet to arrest Wabwire. However, the CCTV footage shows him seemingly arguing with Bhandari before he corked and killed. The first person who was meant to die was a lady who was in front but she fled the moment she had the bullet being moved to the chamber.