By RABECCA CHIPANTA –
A TWENTY-FIVE-year-old man of Masaiti in Chief Chiwala’s chiefdom has allegedly been shot and killed by a police over a suspected land dispute.
Copperbelt police commissioner Charity Katanga confirmed the shooting of the deceased identified as Kelvin Libeleka.
Ms Katanga has however refuted claims by villagers that the deceased was murdered by police stating that police were executing a warrant when the incident happened on Wednesday night.
She said that police were yet to establish the circumstances that led to the shooting and subsequent death of Mr Libeleka.
She added that investigations had been instituted to establish what transpired on the fateful night.
“As far as we are concerned, we have no murder case, there is no murder. What we have is a shooting incident in which a person has been killed. We are yet to establish the circumstances in which the person died. The police were there executing a warrant,” she said.
Ms Katanga said she could only issue a consolidated statement once investigations were concluded as there were conflicting statements on what transpired.
She said it was yet to be established whether the deceased was shot while trying to grab the gun from the police officer or that the firearm went off accidentally.
“I will only make a consolidated statement after we get full details of what transpired. We have people from Chiwala area and police officers on the ground  investigating further the circumstances of the death.
“There is no clear picture of what transpired whether the person was killed by police or the firearm accidentally went off after he was struggling to grab the gun,” she said.
Ms Katanga said the deceased sustained a bullet wound.
She added that the body of the deceased was picked up on Wednesday around 23:00 hours and has since been deposited at Ndola Central Hospital mortuary.