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It is exceedingly rare and suspicious for police to refuse to give details on routine arrests. For two long days, police have uncharacteristically declined to give us circumstances surrounding the death of Simbarashe Muchengeti at Shurugwi Central Police Station on Thursday. Muchengeti, 39, was said to be an armed robbery suspect, who also illegally traded in gold. On top of it all, he was said to be on the police wanted list.
Midlands Police spokesman Inspector Joel Goko is not speaking; neither is his boss, national spokesman, Chief Superintendent Paul Nyathi. Without an official account, we have had to depend on unofficial sources, one telling us that Muchengeti asked to go to the toilet on Thursday evening. “Unbeknown” to arresting officers, he was “armed,” so when he was permitted to go to relieve himself, he proceeded to shoot himself in the abdomen. Details in the charge office are said to have been shocked hearing the sound of gun shots from the toilet and rushed to investigate. Muchengeti had shot himself in apparent suicide, we are told.
Police’s echoing silence alone, without even discussing other elements of the case that we are going to point out here, suggests something untoward led to his death.
Muchengeti is said to have been an armed robbery suspect, which means he was, potentially a dangerous person. We have one of the best police forces in the world, which knows how to deal with armed robbery suspects. Routinely, the first step they take upon effecting an arrest, is to search the suspect for weapons. We are made to believe that Shurugwi police arrested a suspected armed robber, took him to their charge office without disarming him! This is definitely not how our police handle armed robbers. If indeed the arresting officers committed this cardinal mistake, they are a danger to themselves and their colleagues at Shurugwi Central Police Station and a disgrace to the good force as a whole.
He could have simply opened fire on everyone in the charge office, including police details. He didn’t, we are told, but chose to go away and turn the gun on himself. Shurugwi police brought the name of the ZRP into grave disrepute for their dereliction of duty, therefore must be punished. That is point number one, failure to disarm a suspected armed robber in a charge office.
Number two is that police normally escort suspects to wherever they go. In this case, indications are that they didn’t accompany the supposedly dangerous suspect to the toilet, yet he had been on the run for a while. We ask why? Typical professional handling of armed robbery suspects, particularly those on the police wanted list is not conducted like Shurugwi police did regarding Muchengeti. What they did, is what they would do with a harmless public drinking suspect, who has no motivation to escape or cause harm to himself knowing he would soon be fined and released.
Number three is that the pictures we published on Monday clearly show that Muchengeti was handcuffed on the front. Here was a handcuffed man, hiding a gun somewhere, going to the toilet unaccompanied and still able to draw the weapon and shoot himself. People rarely shoot themselves in the abdomen if they surely want to commit suicide. They target parts of the body that take them much more promptly like the head or the heart. Muchengeti targeted his abdomen and died after excessive blood loss, the rumour claims.
Fourthly, in their collective silence, police are raising eyebrows. In the two days, Sunday and Monday, we have sought their comment, police in Harare and Midlands have refused to speak. Given that the death occurred on Thursday, it means they have maintained their silence for five days. But without uttering a word, police may have loudly confirmed the Muchengetis and our suspicions that there is much more to his death than meets the eye. Silence is not exactly good press relations, for it breeds undeserved speculation.
Muchengeti’s family is justified in refusing to take the idea that he shot himself. A relative said he was unarmed when he voluntarily handed himself to police, therefore could not shoot himself. Where did the gun come from? “We pleaded with the police to furnish us with details surrounding the death of our relative but up to now we are still in the dark,” said a relative.
“The only information availed to us is that he shot himself but we are not buying that. Muchengeti was not armed in the first place.”
Police have a chance to emphasise what we already know, that they are a competent force by coming out clear and dealing with officers who brought its good name into disrepute. The record of our police is distinguished, no doubt about that, but there are always those bad elements. It is those elements, we think, that did not do a good job in Shurugwi.
Online Reporter