Staff Reporter
Windhoek-A 27-year-old man got the shock of his life when armed police officials in civilian clothing shot at his Amarok double cab in the early hours of Friday after he was mistaken for a fugitive.
Wapale Kalla was going home to sleep a few minutes to midnight at around 23h51 when he noticed a car was parked at his parking spot.
Kalla then decided to park his vehicle on the sidewalk and while trying to park, an armed “individual” pointed a gun at him.
Kalla immediately thought the family house and business were being robbed and so he ducked while reversing his car in panic.
About 20 metres away, four police officers, all in civilian clothing, unleashed a volley of bullets at him, apparently 26 shots.
They kept shooting and when Kalla saw they wouldn’t stop shooting he raised both arms and crawled out of the car, telling them “stop shooting and take whatever you want”,
“The four men were shouting even when I ‘surrendered’,” said Kalla, saying it was only when the manager of the family guest house in the same vicinity arrived and asked why they were shooting at him that the police realised they had mistaken Kalla as one of the suspects in the N$900,000 heist that took place last week in Okahandja.
On Friday morning the police were still investigating the crime scene when New Era met Kalla at his residence in Hochland Park.
He opened a case of attempted murder, malicious damage to property and discharging a firearm in a residential area, against the police.
“I was very lucky because if I was driving the small car that I normally drive I would have been dead,” a shocked Kalla said.
Contacted for comment on the matter, the head of media relations of the Namibian Police Force, Chief Inspector Kauna Shikwambi, said she had no information on the matter.
“I can’t confirm anything on that,” said Shikwambi.