Three killed, 4 injured in shootout outside Nation Centre - VIDEO
Two suspects and a woman bystander were shot dead as police and gangsters engaged in a dramatic gun battle in Nairobi’s Central Business District Tuesday.
Four other people - two women, a man and a police officer – survived the midday incident with bullet injuries and were rushed to hospital.
According to police, the two men killed were suspected gangsters, adding that a Ceska pistol was recovered from one of them, while two of their accomplices managed to escape.
Business on the normally busy Kimathi Street outside Nation Centre, where the shoot-out occurred, ground to a standstill as police ran after the gangsters who were escaping through adjacent back lanes.
The victims were felled on different spots several metres from where the shooting started, at the Bazaar shopping and office complex at the end of Kimathi Street.
One of the men was felled on the junction of Kimathi Street and Kenyatta Avenue and the other on a lane leading to Moi Avenue. Both were shot in the chest.
The woman was shot in the dead about 50 metres from one of men, on a pavement connecting Kimathi Street to Moi Avenue.
Initial information circulated over walkie talkie to police officers around the city indicated that “two gangsters had been gunned down and two others were escaping,” and all escape routes should be sealed.
(Read: Two suspects shot dead outside Nation Centre - VIDEO)
The report indicated the gang had three guns but only one was recovered.
The injured officer, a policeman from Central Police station was hit in the leg and was carried by his colleagues to a taxi and rushed to Kenyatta National Hospital.
The other victims were carried by other pedestrians and taken to the nearby Crescent Medical Aid clinic.
An hour later, three ambulances arrived to transfer the victims to other hospitals, but the woman who was clad in a Buibui was pronounced dead.
She had a bullet wound in the head.
The man who survived was hit in the leg while the other woman had a injuries showing the bullet hit her in the chest and exited at the back.
A medic at the clinic described her situation as “stable,” and police further interviewed her.
A police officer told the Nation that the gangsters were initially sighted by a member of the public at a nearby restaurant.
The man then alerted police officers who were on patrol who then circulated the information to their colleagues.
The gang was first approached officers in plain clothes and moments after, they were being chased by different police teams.
Administration Police men who were on duty at the nearby banks also joined the chase.
BULLET MARKS
After the gun fight, several premises were left with bullet marks.
Two bullets hit and shattered glass on GT Bank and there were holes on the Equity Bank door.
The Banks were closed and other businesses were closed until the situation returned to normal.
Pedestrians were forced to lie on their bellies on the tarmac as gunshots rent the air.
