A 10-YEAR-OLD girl has been hospitalised after she was allegedly accidentally shot while the police were chasing a cellphone theft suspect at Oshakati.The police confirmed the incident that took place on Saturday afternoon, but denied responsibility, although the child's parents claim it is the police.
Detective inspector Mathew Bartholomeus from the
criminal investigation unit said Penehafo Hamunyela was shot by a civilian who
was helping the police catch the suspect.
“It was confirmed by eyewitnesses that it's not
the police officer who fired. The police officer fell down and his pistol was
left with another person who picked it up and made use of it,” Bartholomeus
claimed in an interview with The Namibian yesterday.
He insisted that eyewitnesses saw the civilian
shooting the child.
However, Penehafo's parents are convinced she was
shot by a police officer.
Penehafo's mother, Ndeuhala Nakamela, said her
daughter was in the sitting room when she was hit by a stray bullet in her
lower abdomen.
The bullet flew through the roof of their shack
situated at the Oshoopala area of Oshakati.
Nakamela said when she heard gunshots in the area,
she told Pombili and a neighbour's child to go inside the house.
“A few minutes after they went into the house, I
heard Penehafo crying. I thought she was afraid of the gunshots because I was
outside the house looking at the suspected robber whom the police were shooting
at,” Nakamela narrated yesterday.
The neighbour's child then informed Nakamela that
Penehafo had been shot.
“I came into the house and found Penehafo lying on
the ground in a pool of blood. I ran to the police van that was close to my
house and informed them that they had shot my child,” she added.
She said the police took the girl to the Oshakati
Intermediate Hospital, whereupon she was referred to the C-section and was
later referred to the intensive care unit (ICU).
Penehafo is a Grade 5 pupil at Okatana Primary
School.
Nakamela said Penehafo spent three days in the ICU
and was only discharged on Monday morning.
She added that the bullet had lodged in Penehafo's
stomach and she had to be operated on to remove it. So far, she has been
operated on twice, she said.
“She is still in the hospital in high care,”
Nakamela said, adding that her daughter cannot sit on her own without assitance.
Nakamela expressed disappointment in the police
for not visiting her child in hospital, saying she wants to see the police
officer who shot her child.
“That officer should come and at least apologise
to us for shooting our child. If the shooter was responsible, he or she would
have visited the child in hospital,” she added.
Nakamela's husband, Job Hamunyela, said they are
concerned whether the child would recover soon and go back to school.
He also said the suspect the police were chasing
was arrested, but he does not understand why the person who shot his child has
not been arrested.
Hamunyela added that they have not opened a case
against the officer who allegedly shot their daughter as the state would do
that on behalf of the victim.
The couple also accused the police of concealing
the shooting, because they have allegedly not reported it in their police
weekly crime report.
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