Two people have been shot dead and three others critically injured following an armed robbery at Cheap General Hardware shop in Nansana municipality along Hoima road today. The robbery took place at around 1:30pm.
The deceased have been identified as Jimmy Atikuru, the shop's assistant manager and Frank Aruho. The injured include; William Nuwamya , Ronald Tulupale and another only identified as Allan. The injured are currently admitted at Mulago national referral hospital.
Kampala Metropolitan Police spokesperson Patrick Onyango, said preliminary investigations indicate that six thugs armed with AK-47 riffles attacked the hardware at the time when the assistant manager was moving out of the hardware to bank a yet-to-be specified amount of money.
The attack left Nansana town in shock as most traders and business owners closed their shops earlier than usual. Nalongo Nakimuli, restaurant operator, narrates that when the thugs attacked, she was serving food to one of the workers of the hardware shop in her makeshift restaurant which is beside the hardware when they heard gunshots. Nakimuli adds that at this moment, all people within the restaurant laid flat on the ground in fear but they could clearly hear the thugs asking for money.
“They ordered them to give them money several times. I think the (assistant) manager refused to give them money and at that point they shot more bullets," says Nakimuli.
Pual Musaasizi, a boda boda rider at Kabumbi stage shares the terrifying scene saying that the thugs who were riding on three motorcycles (boda boda) donned in overalls with masks on their faces attacked the hardware shop. He says two closed off the highway by firing shots in the air to stop the traffic from flowing while the rest entered the hardware shop.
Godfrey Kayiwa, a shop owner adjacent to the scene, says after the armed thugs on boda boda took charge of the area, there were other thugs who came out of a white saloon car which had been parked near the hardware that joined the team.
Namuli says that after the theft some of the thugs used corridors in between buildings to get away while others mounted their boda bodas and rode via Kabumbi road. Although Nansana police station is just less than 500m from the scene, it took almost 40 minutes before police arrived at the scene. An officer privy to the investigation said that CCTV camera footage from the hardware shop have been obtained to identify and track the suspects.