Reckless behavior by police in the Central Province had landed a Kerema man at the Port Moresby General Hospital who is now receiving medical treatment after sustaining a bullet wound to his right leg.
It was alleged that Police Officers from Laloki Police Station in Central Province fired close range shots at a 25 seater PMV bus and its passengers, on Monday night wounding the victim in the leg, while they were travelling to Port Moresby along the Hiritano Highway.
“It was a moment of death for me personally,” recalled the terrified bus crew Peter Kinamun when an officer pointed the gun in his face.
Four police officers allegedly stopped the PMV bus at a place called Rupuroka Tulait Market within the Laloki vicinity and assaulted the driver and the bus crew.
Kinamun said they were travelling from Kerema towards the Rupuroka Tuklait market in the dark when all of a sudden a vehicle that was hidden just within the market put on their spot light. Peter said they thought they were local hunters on a routine hunt for wallabies and continued to drive when they realized they were been chased down by the vehicle and ordered to stop.
“We recognised the vehicle which was a single cab Toyota Hilux that belonged to the Laloki police so we stopped as instructed by them.”
He said three police men in civilian clothes stepped out and took the driver’s licence, the crew permit and then ordered everyone to come out of the bus.
“We didn’t see the fourth police officer hiding in the dark with the gun, we only saw the three police men who were standing in the light.”
“One of the three officers started punching the driver while the driver was trying to explain to them that he did not see any road signs to signal a police road block so he drove passed them.”
“While they continued to punch the driver, the fourth police officer came out from the dark and landed the butt of the gun on the drivers face knocking him to the ground.”
“When the police man with the gun saw me standing behind the driver, he cocked the gun and pointed it right on my face. I stepped back and realised there was no way to run so I thought to myself, this is the day I die.”
“I told the police man, I have done nothing wrong but if you are going to kill me than go ahead and do it , and I raised my hand up to surrender.”
The police man then lowered the gun and swore at them and told them to get in the bus and leave.
“As we were rushing the passengers to get in the bus while the police men kept swearing and yelling at us, the officer with the gun fired the first shot which came through the glass bringing the glass on the door down.”
“He then fired the second shot at close range which penetrated through the metal covering of the bus and straight into a passenger’s leg, completely damaging the leg and the same bullet just lightly tipped my knee cap which burnt my skin.”
“I felt a burning sensation on my knee and I looked down and saw some blood so I rubbed my knee to be sure the bullet didn’t get me.”
“At that very moment, I got emotional and yelled at the police men and told them off; is this what your bosses tell you to do? To shoot at unarmed civilians!”
“When I looked down, the passenger that got shot was bleeding very badly and he passed out so we quickly got on the bus and drove off with the same police officers tailing us from behind”
“We couldn’t slow down as the bleeding was getting worse so we just sped off as fast as we could to the hospital without second thoughts if they followed us or not.”
The owner of the PMV bus Mr Kelly Kinamun was shocked and disappointed at the manner in which police officers opened fire at unarmed civilians for no good reason.
Kinamun said his bus was only six weeks old and there was nothing wrong with the bus nor the crew and the driver. He expressed his utmost frustration at the actions of the few police men that spoil the name of other good police officers almost killing an innocent passenger and endangering the lives of the others.
“I don’t know why they stopped the bus, assaulted the driver and then decided to shoot at close range injuring an innocent person.”
“The crew had his permit, the driver had his license, no one was drinking and the bus is fully registered so I fail to understand the police men’s behaviour,” Mr Kinamun said.
He said police can only fire shots like that when there is danger and not just pulling the trigger unnecessarily in front of unarmed civilians.
“You fire a gun when there is a life and death situation, not at a group of harmless passengers who were on their way to Port Moresby to sell their crabs,” Mr Kinamun said.
He said that if the passenger had died, his innocent family back home could have suffered the loss at the hands of rogue officers.
“I feel sorry for the poor guy who caught the bullet, he did not deserve that and I’m relieved that he made it to the hospital on time, however his leg looks really bad and could be amputated if serious. ”
Mr Kinamun said rogue police officers don’t deserve to be on the Force and should be removed at the first instance of such misconduct to protect the other law abiding and hardworking police officers.
“I would like to suggest to the Police Commissioner to remove these police officer from the Force if they cannot substantiate their actions for the shooting.”
Mr Kinamun is yet to establish the cost of damage done to his bus but in the meantime, he has filed reports at the Central Police Head Quarters for investigation to take place.
The Central Police have also confirmed this incident and they have started preliminary investigations with the Internal Investigation Unit visiting the crime scene area and collecting statements from witnesses.
