Robber Killed In Battle With Police

A gun battle between four armed robbers and the police at dawn yesterday, led to the death of one of the robbers who was shot at Kotobabi on the Spintex road.

The other robbers escaped.

The four had robbed two houses of mobile phones, jewellery, a laptop computer, wedding and engagement rings and money.

It was when they went to the third house that the Sakumono Police Patrol team, acting on a tip-off, went to the scene at Kotobabi Number Two at Baatsona, where the exchange of fire started.

Narrating her ordeal to journalists here yesterday, Mrs Doris Anum-Dorhuso, an accountant at Readwide Limited, whose house was the first to be attacked, said at about 11.40 pm, she and her husband heard footsteps in the house.

The husband looked through a window and asked who were in the house, and the robbers responded, 'we are armed robbers'.

She said the robbers then forced the living room door open and upon entering, ordered them to come out.

Mrs Anum-Dorhuso said they complied and the robbers asked her husband to lie down while they pointed a gun at his head.

The robbers stepped on him and asked him to bring out all the money they had in the house.

She said her husband told them that the only money they had was GH¢300, which he gave to them but they insisted that there should be more.

'My husband then suggested he would give them a cheque but they didn’t like that one so they requested us to give them our wedding rings,' Mrs Anum-Dorhuso said.

She said the armed robbers then told her that they were going to rape her in front of her husband.

Mrs Anum-Dorhuso said that, at this point, she started praying. According to her, they told her husband that 'because your wife is spirit-filled, we will neither rape nor kill her'.

The robbers then took their car keys, mobile phones, jewellery and their rings and locked them inside the house and left for the second house.

In the next house, they subjected Mr and Mrs Joseph Adjei, both teachers, to severe beatings before taking their mobile phones, wedding rings, and camera since the couple said they had no money.

According to Mr and Mrs Adjei, the robbers slapped them several times and asked them to give them money else they would be killed. But after ransacking the house and seeing nothing, they subjected members of the household to severe beatings, locked them inside the house and left for the third house belonging to Warrant officer (rtd) Francis Norman, where they collected mobile phones, two wedding rings and a laptop computer.

It was at this point that a neighbour alerted the police who were on patrol in the area.

The patrol team rushed to the scene and the gun battle started between them and the police.

One robber died in the process while the other three managed to escape.

Th police found laptop, jewelleries including wedding rings, and a locally manufactured gun concealed in a bag the dead robber was holding.

The Tema Regional Police Commander, DCOP John Kudalor, who led the police, cautioned people who buy second-hand items to be wary because they would be charged with dishonestly receiving stolen items.