Three armed gangsters were fatally wounded on Tuesday evening, following a fierce exchange of fire pitting the thugs against Directorate of Criminal Investigations (DCI) detectives.
The three miscreants, the DCI says, had just staged a robbery and were headed for another mission along Mombasa road, when they met the no-nonsense Special Service Unit (SSU) detectives in their element, after they chose vayolence by defying orders to surrender and fired at the officers.
“Earlier, a few minutes to 5pm, detectives based at the #FichuakwaDCI anonymous hotline centre had received information from a concerned citizen that armed men were about to commit a robbery along a specific area in Mombasa road,” noted the DCI.
“Immediately, the SSU sleuths who are always on standby at strategic areas within the city, moved with speed towards Mombasa road at Alfa centre and laid an ambush,” police added.
Minutes later, six suspicious looking men who matched the descriptions given by the distraught caller approached the detectives’ vehicle, parked menacingly at the edge of the road they were using.
With nowhere to run, the in-charge of the operation ordered them to stop and state their mission but with DCI hatchback staring at them, raring to give a chase at the slightest provocation, two of the thugs opened fire towards it shattering one of its side mirrors.
“The imposing appearance of the Subaru must have scared them stiff,” said the National Police Service (NPS) criminal investigative agency.
Police recover firearm after shootout
Without wasting time, the battle hardened crime busters answered the provocation with finality, fatally wounding three of the thugs while a similar number escaped, their bodies riddled with gunshot injuries.
Following the evening shootout, a berretta pistol serial number 1999667 CAT 5802 loaded with four rounds of 9mm caliber, one toy pistol, one pocket phone, one HP laptop, one hammer, one Somali sword and six assorted mobile phones were recovered from the thugs.
Even before the sleuths had handed over the scene to experts from the forensic crime scenes investigations unit, a man of Asian origin who had been attacked at gun point minutes before, arrived at the scene and identified some of the items recovered from the fallen thugs as his.
Bodies of the slain thugs are lying at the city mortuary pending identification as detectives pursue the three other criminals who escaped with life threatening injuries.
