Patrick Chitumba [email protected]
A ROUTINE trip to town to collect a mattress turned into a nightmare for a Senga house caretaker, who returned with the police to find a Midlands State University (MSU) student allegedly shot dead and four other students locked inside a room.
Ms Blessing Nkomo said she was away from the property when the shooting occurred on Thursday afternoon in the KMP area of Senga, Gweru.
The Level Four, First Semester student was allegedly shot in the head by a man suspected to be her former husband.
Ms Nkomo said she became suspicious after receiving a series of disturbing phone calls from one of the children staying at the property.
When this reporter visited the house, Ms Nkomo and her husband said the fatal shooting had left them devastated.
Recounting the harrowing events, Ms Nkomo said she had left for town between 2pm and 3pm to collect a mattress she had bought when she received a call from a child at the house asking whether she was safe.
“I was in town when a child who stays here called and asked me whether I was safe and whether I was in my room. I told her that I was not at home,” she said.
Ms Nkomo said she instructed the child to check the rooms and establish whether anything suspicious had happened around the property.
The child reportedly discovered that some doors were open, while a man wearing a hooded jacket was moving around the premises.
According to Ms Nkomo, the man, described by witnesses as tall and dark-complexioned, with tattoos on his shoulder and arm, confronted students who had ventured into the passage to investigate the commotion.
“He took their phones and ordered them to get inside. Four of the students were forced into one room, the same room where my tenant was shot. He locked them inside and threw their phones into a bathtub,” she said.
The caretaker said the discovery that the phones had been thrown into a bathtub heightened her fears that something terrible had happened.
“When I heard that the phones had been thrown into the bathtub, I realised that things were not right at home. I told my husband that we should forget about the mattress and concentrate on getting help because I feared for the children’s safety,” she said.
Ms Nkomo and her husband reportedly sought police assistance but initially struggled to get officers to respond to the unfolding emergency.
They eventually received assistance from police officers manning a roadblock, who helped them link up with a Criminal Investigations Department (CID) team travelling to Shurugwi.
When they arrived at the property accompanied by two police officers, Ms Nkomo said the trapped students were desperately calling for help.
“My girls were crying and shouting, ‘Auntie, things are not good here! Open for us!’ They then told me that one of them was dead,” she said.
The revelation left her devastated.
“I felt all my strength leave me. They were pleading with us to open the door because they feared the man might still be inside the house and they did not know what was happening,” she said.
With the keys locked inside the room, Ms Nkomo said police officers asked her to find a crowbar so they could force the door open and free the students.
The four students were eventually released, but their friend had died.
Ms Nkomo said some of the students had been staying at the property since February, while the deceased began renting a room on August 2, when the current semester opened.
She said she had seen a man at the property earlier that afternoon but had not suspected anything was amiss.
“I saw a man who was dressed in blue and greeted him as I was preparing to leave for town. He told me that the student was there. I assumed he was a relative or someone visiting a student, as parents and relatives sometimes come to check on their children,” she said.
Ms Nkomo said she also noticed a grey or dark-silver vehicle parked on the grass outside the property as she left, but did not record its registration number.
She later learnt that the man who had visited the house was suspected to be connected to the shooting.
According to information relayed to her by the students, the suspect had allegedly visited the property about two weeks earlier and had been trying to reconcile with the deceased.
Ms Nkomo said the deceased’s friend later arrived at the house carrying medication for menstrual pain, explaining that she had brought the tablets for the student.
The friend reportedly identified the man described by the other students as someone who had previously stayed nearby and had been pleading with the deceased to resume their relationship.
The suspect’s identity and his alleged relationship with the deceased had not been independently established at the time of reporting.
Ms Nkomo said the deceased leaves behind an infant, estimated to be between eight and nine months old, who lives with the child’s paternal grandmother.
Police investigations are expected to establish the full circumstances surrounding the fatal shooting.
