Boy, 13, guns down lunatic

A 13-YEAR-OLD primary schoolboy shocked residents of Enhu-utem-Eniehu, near Sefwi-Wiawso in the Western Region, last Friday when he shot and killed a man believed to be mentally unstable.

The boy, Amos Okrah, was said to have used his father's shotgun to commit the offence.

The gunshot woke the community up at about 12:30 a.m. last Friday, but residents were confined to their rooms, assuming that armed robbers had attacked the village.

Those who later mustered courage and came out of their rooms, were horrified to see the deceased, Victor Amankwah, lying lifeless in a pool of blood.

The incident occurred in the absence of the boy's father, who was said to have travelled to the Brong Ahafo Region to attend to some family issues, leaving Okrah and his siblings behind and with the gun in the room.

According to the police, the only explanation the little boy could give was that the deceased had entered their compound about 12:30 a.m., using the machete he was wielding to hit an empty aluminium pot left outside.

"I came out several times to ask him to stop but he would not mind me. Then I went for the gun and shot him," Little Amos told the police.

According to him, his father had travelled and the deceased was disturbing him and his siblings by using the machete to hit the empty pot.

The body of the deceased has been deposited at the Sefwi-Wiawso Government Hospital, while Amos has been taken into custody.

The police said the boy's father had been contacted to report himself immediately to help in investigations.

It would be recalled that last December a similar incident occurred at Magagia Camp, also near Sefwi-Wiawso, when a four-year-old boy shot his seven-year-old sister when he was playing with his father's shotgun.