A TSHABALALA man was on Tuesday locked up in remand prison for attempting to shoot a cop who wanted to arrest him for illegal possession of a fire arm.
SILAS NKALA STAFF REPORTER
Sibukani Mguni (29) was not asked to plead to attempted murder charges when he appeared before Bulawayo senior magistrate Abednico Ndebele and was remanded to February 25.
The court heard that on February 4 this year at 9:30am, the cop Tofara Sibanda, who is based at the Western Commonage Police Station, was in the company of two other police constables when they received a tip off that Mguni was in possession of an unlicensed firearm. The constables got information that Mguni was at Mnethi Shopping Centre in Nkulumane 4 and went to look for him.
On arrival, the cops spotted Mguni sitting in a Toyota Quantum vehicle. When he noticed that they were approaching his vehicle, Mguni drew the pistol and got out of the car.
Sibanda fired a warning shot into the air but Mguni fired a single shot at him and missed. The State said Mguni then fled through a maize field where he dumped the pistol, but the cops shot him on the upper left shoulder and right forearm. He was apprehended at the Nkulumane High School yard.
The cops recovered the CZ pistol loaded with a magazine of nine live rounds of ammunition with the help of members of the public.
The pistol’s serial numbers had been erased. The used cartridge that Mguni had fired was recovered and sent for ballistic tests.
