President Yoweri Museveni has called out police leaders on circumstances that led to the shooting of an Indian Money lender on Friday, May 12 , 2023 at at Rajja Chambers along Parliamentary Avenue.
The deceaseed Uttam Bhandari, a director at TSF financial services was murdered in cold blood at about 12:30pm by a police constable identified as Ivan Wabwire who remains on the run.
In a statement released on Saturday afternoon, the President condemned the killing and questioned why a police officer off duty was permitted to move with a gun. He also wondered why the suspect PC was allowed by security guards at the scene of crime to access the premises with a gun.
Museveni stated that if such mistakes are dealt with, such scenarios will not occur in society.
“How did an off-duty Police man access a gun? Did he walk away from his guard post without permission with a gun to commit crime? How are the guns stored in the Police? Is there no security at the site where the victim was? Why did that local security allow an armed person into the building who had no guard business there?” he questioned
The President also questioned the mental state of the suspect saying the police leadership should have resolved better management tactics once they realized his mental stability was lacking.
“Then, there is the question of the mental state of this Policeman. 6. Did he have a history of mental instability? If he had, why hadn’t the Police leadership noticed and acted appropriately? The answers to these questions may help us to plug the gaps in the security system. Condolences to the family of Bhandari.
Museveni also questioned the mental stability of the suspect saying the police leadership could have done better in terms of managing the situation. He explained
“Did he have a history of mental instability? If he had, why hadn’t the Police leadership noticed and acted appropriately? The answers to these questions may help us to plug the gaps in the security system.” he said
According to preliminary investigations from police, Wabwire was diagnosed with a mental illness six years ago and his fire arm withdrawn from him. He was since deployed at the at CCTV monitoring center and only sent on missions that did not require use of guns.
According to Patrick Onyango the Kampala Metropolitan police spokesperson, PC Wabwire stole the loaded AK47 gun from his roommate identified as Steven Mulambo while he was away to see his sick child,
Onyango explains that Mulambo signed for the gun but didnt return it to the Armory as required once his official duty was complete. He says Mulambo is currently detained at Kireka as police hunts down the main suspect.
“Due to limited accommodation, the suspect was sharing a house with a fellow police officer, on 12 May 23 his housemate had worked at night, and didn’t return the gun to the armoury instead he went with it to their house and shortly, he got a call that his child was sick, he rushed to go and check on the child leaving the gun behind. The suspect Wabwire took that advantage, got the gun and went and misused it by shooting Uttam.” says onyango
He adds that police have also retrieved the CCTV footage from the room revealing how the suspect shot the victim Bhandari. The footage also shows what transpired at the crime scene before the shooting incident.
Police have already dispatched a team to track him.