"Stray bullet" from security man's gun kills one, wounds seven

Koforidua, Oct. 21, GNA - An armed private security guard who was assisting in the arrest of an alleged thief ended up killing one man and wounding seven others when his gun accidentally went off at the Omnibus Services Authority (OSA) yard at Koforidua on Monday.

The body of the victim, identified as Yaw Appau, a labourer of a construction company within the OSA yard, was deposited at the mortuary of the Koforidua Regional Hospital, while Iddrisu Zelkaneni, 50, a also a labourer, who was hit in the chest had been referred to the Korle Bu Teaching Hospital and the rest were treated and discharged.

The irate crowd that converged at the scene set upon the private security guard who was identified as Clement Atta of the Shalom Security Company based in Kumasi, beat him severely for his "unaccepted behaviour" and handed him over to the police.

While the people were dealing with Atta, they lost their concentration on the alleged thief who managed to take advantage of the situation and escaped.

Investigations conducted by the Ghana News Agency (GNA) revealed that Atta, who accompanied a staff of the Nkawkaw branch of the Mponua Rural Bank to the Koforidua branch, saw a policeman struggling to arrest a suspected thief in the OSA yard and so rushed to the scene to assist him.

On reaching the scene, Atta was alleged to have given two warning shots and used the butt of his gun to hit the hands of the thief who held onto the wooden fence of the OSA Yard in his attempt to escape, in order to force him to loosen his hold on the wall.

His gun went off and hit Appau and the others who were among the crowd.

The police said they were still investigating the case.