A man from Cowdray Park suburb in Bulawayo has been hospitalised at Mpilo Central Hospital after he was shot in the thigh by police officers who were chasing an armed robbery suspect.
An eyewitness, Tedious Masina, told CITE that Nkazimulo Ndimande was injured by a stray bullet from shots that were being fired by the police officers on Friday around 8 PM. Said Masina:
It was around 8 PM. We were inside the barbershop when there was a commotion outside.
We heard a gunshot, and then a second one followed shortly after. People were running all over and screaming.
A total of four shots were fired during the incident.
Ndimande then went outside to see what was happening. A third shot was fired. He came back inside and that was when I saw that he had been shot in the thigh.
I tied him with a cable of one of my scissors and called an ambulance.
Masina said as they waited for the ambulance to arrive, he saw some police officers going to their cars that were parked adjacent to the barbershop. He said:
I saw the cops approaching their cars. They had two of them, a white Toyota Fortuner and a Honda Fit. I called them and told them they had shot my friend.
They carried him into the Fortuner and took us to Bulawayo West Hospital, a surgery that is at the (Cowdray Park) terminus.
They told us they were from Homicide. They then called other officers from Cowdray Park police base and they came to the surgery.
They are the ones who paid all the bills for the expenses incurred. The ambulance later arrived and took Ndimande to Mpilo.
When we got to Mpilo, we saw different police officers from the ones we had initially interacted with.
They ordered us to leave the room. They had a big book with them. When they came to us they said Ndimande was on their wanted list for a case of armed robbery.
They had already cuffed him to the bed and left one officer to guard him. What we could not understand was how they came to that conclusion.
Ndimande is not someone who is of such behaviour. We know him and he cannot be associated with armed robbery.
Ndimande’s sibling said they were shocked as a family to see him handcuffed and to hear that he was an armed robber.
Meanwhile, in a statement, ZRP spokesperson, Assistant Commissioner Paul Nyathi said Ndimande was part of a four-man gang that was being chased for armed robbery.
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