DRC: a student killed by a police officer in Kinshasa, a blunder according to the police
University of Kinshasa, Democratic Republic of Congo.
(CC) / Humprey JL Boyelo / Wikipedia
Text by: RFI Follow
3 min
A student was shot and killed on Saturday July 24 in Kinshasa by a police officer following a check that went wrong.
Publicity
Read more
Saturday afternoon, in the Liberation district of the municipality of Selembao. A group of students are filming as part of a practical work when a police officer approaches them for the first time, to ask them for a bribe, reports an eyewitness. “
We gave him 3,000 F and he left. After 15
minutes, he returned with his colleagues. He began to threaten, to tear off the equipment,
says this witness.
The assistant then went to negotiate but, to our surprise, he was arrested. When the students saw this, they decided to make a claim.
"
The tension is growing. One of the police then asks the students to disperse, but they refuse. “
After the refusal, that's where there is a policeman… He started shooting. He fired a bullet at point blank range. He fired two more bullets and the student fell on the spot. There, the population came, the police fled and there you have it,
”said this witness.
In a statement, the police do not speak of attempted bribery. According to the police, the agents would have indeed simply wanted to control the authorization to shoot, but it is because they could not produce the document that the assistant was then taken ... angrily, the students throw projectiles at the police. It is by wanting to shoot a warning bullet on the ground, recklessly, according to this press release, that the student is hit in the stomach. The policeman is currently on the run, having abandoned his weapon and his uniform.
This Sunday morning, Commissioner Sylvano Kasongo Kitenge condemns "
with the utmost energy this police blunder too much
".
He assures us that the fleeing policeman will be arrested to be brought to justice.
His colleagues and his commander have already been arrested to determine their possible involvement.
One of the police officers is, according to him, seriously injured in the head, after the population set fire to the police station.
He now calls on the students to be calm.
Newsletter
Receive all international news directly in your mailbox
I subscribe
Follow all the international news by downloading the RFI application
google-play-badge_FR
DRC
Justice