Police Constable Ivan Wabwire who shot an Indian businessman dead yesterday has a mental problem and he used a colleague’s gun to accomplish his mission, Watchdog Uganda has learnt.
In a statement issued today, Kampala Metropolitan Police Spokesperson, Patrick Onyango revealed that police at CPS Kampala are continuing with the investigation of murder by shooting that happened at Raja Chambers along Parliamentary avenue in Kampala.
He said the Detectives who visited the scene on 12th May 2023, recovered 13 cartridges from the scene.
“They have retrieved the CCTV footages from the room which clearly shows how the suspect 67029 PC Wabwire Ivan shot the victim Uttam Bhandari. The footage also shows what transpired at the crime scene before the shooting incident, this will be very useful evidence during trial.
The suspect is still on the run but a team has been setup to track him,”Onyango disclosed.
It has also since been discovered that Wabwire has a mental problem and he has ever been admitted to Butabika Mental Hospital.
And due to the suspect’s medical conditions, the Police management at CPS Kampala had taken a decision about six (6) years ago NOT TO ARM Wabwire with a gun and they have been deploying him in beats that doesn’t require him to be armed. His current deployment was at CCTV monitoring center.
“Due to limited accommodation, the suspect was sharing a house with a fellow police officer. On 12 May 2023, his housemate had worked at night, and didn’t return the gun to the armoury instead he went with it to their house and shortly, he got a call that his child was sick, he rushed to go and check on the child leaving the gun behind,”Onyango said.
“The suspect Wabwire took that advantage, got the gun and went and misused it by shooting Uttam. His roommate who signed for the gun PC Mulambo Steven has been arrested and detained at Kireka,” he added.
Onyango told the media yesterday that Wabwire has been Uttam’s client at has been servicing two loans since 2020, and the first one was directly deducted from his salary.
“He could just come and pay whenever he got the money for the second loan. They calculated and told him he owed the company Shs2, 130,000. Yesterday, (Thursday) he said the bank where they are paying his salary wanted the calculations so that they can offset all the loans and see how they could progress with him. He came back today and started arguing with one of the workers leading to the shooting,” Onyango said.
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