THREE men yesterday appeared in court on allegations of kidn@pping police officers, disarming and assa_lting them during a dispute over parking space in Harare’s Highfield suburb.
Samuel Tinotenda Muronzi (24), Lionel Rupaya (34) and Jonathan Paul Chishiri (30) were facing ass@ult and kidn@pping charges when they appeared before Harare magistrate Mr Dennis Mangosi. They were freed on US$200 bail each.
The court heard that on May 29, the accused persons were driving a Ford Ranger, registration number ADI 9040. The complainants, who are police detectives, parked their vehicle – a Toyota Vigo double cab, registration number AEC 6213 (ZRP 138T) – at a road side before proceeding to make inquiries a few metres away.
It is the State’s case that when they returned, the accused started complaining that the officers’ vehicle had blocked their way for too long. The complainants introduced themselves as police officers, before they started driving away.
The accused persons disembarked from their vehicle and opened the door of the officers’ vehicle.
They dragged the complainants from their vehicle and pulled the driver from his seat.
The trio saw that the driver was armed and during the tussle, Rupiya tried to disarm the complainant of his CZ service pistol. In the process the firearm discharged and shot the complainant once on the knee cap.
It is alleged that Muronzi took charge of the firearm and they immediately dragged the other complainant from the back seat and he fell down, hitting the ground with his head and sustaining a cut on the back of his head.
His service pistol was loaded with two live rounds and it fell on the tarmac. Chishiri took charge of it.
A female police officer who was in the company of the complainants managed to escape from the scene.
Accused persons threw the complainants into their getaway vehicle and drove towards ZRP Glen Norah.
Along the way, Muronzi indiscriminately fired five shots using the complainant’s firearm. On arrival at ZRP Glen Norah camp, accused persons immediately made a U-turn, thre@tening to take the complainants somewhere to assault them.
The complainants then shouted to a police officer manning the gate that they had been kidn@pped.
The officer responded by closing the boom gate.
Accused persons were then arrested.
The firearms and spent cartridge case was recovered from them.
