Police, criminals involved in shootout at Nyali Bridge
A police officer inspects a vehicle that was abandoned by suspected gangsters at the Nyali Bridge police roadblock on May 12, 2015. PHOTO | LABAN WALLOGA |
What you need to know:
- One suspect was killed while two others were apprehended.
- Business in two nearby hotels was suspended due to the shooting.
Two out of four suspected armed robbers were shot by police officers at Nyali Bridge on Tuesday afternoon in an operation that lasted more than two hours.
Kisauni OCPD Richard Ngatia said officers on patrol received a tip-off from a security guard that the robbers had descended on a family in an apartment in Nyali Estate.
“There was an attempted robbery with violence at Links Road. Security guards (of the apartment) were tied with ropes, but one of them escaped and informed police after noting the registration number of the suspects' car.
“They thus were stopped at Nyali Bridge roadblock by police, when they alighted and escaped on foot,” Mr Ngatia said.
The suspects ran into a nearby mangrove forest. Police pursued them, shooting and critically injuring one of them.
The second suspect was later shot dead as more officers were called into the operation.
One disappeared while the fourth was smoked out with teargas from the thicket.
A heavy afternoon downpour that lasted close to 30 minutes did not put the officers off their target.
Around 20 officers surrounded the area, with others using a boat to seal a possible sea escape route.
Business in two hotels, Thalassa and Sea Front, was suspended for the entire afternoon as tension heightened because of the heavy shooting.
A security guard who works at the attacked apartment building said the thugs put masks on the occupants of the house as they ransacked it for jewellery and other valuables.
He claimed one of the criminals was a woman, adding that the criminals had in their possession two pistols.
