By CHARLES MUSONDA
THE inquest into the death of a 13-year-old schoolboy has established that he was killed by a stray bullet fired by a police officer.
Lusaka Magistrate, Sanford Ngobola, who sat as Coroner into the death of Frank Mugala, said the officers, who were at the scene, schemed to cover up killer officer’s identify.
The incident happened during a riot at Chazanga Basic School on February 13, last year over gassing perpetrated by unknown people.
In his verdict delivered yesterday, Mr Ngobola recommended to the Commissioner of Police to take action. The coroner ordered that a copy of the inquest proceedings be availed to the Commissioner of Police for necessary action.
After concluding the inquiry, he found that police officers, who were deployed to quell the riot, schemed to hide the identity of their colleague who fired at Mugala.
He found that just like in the Kenya incidences, local police officers schemed to cover up wrongdoings committed by their colleagues.
Mr Ngobola said it was unfortunate that a trigger happy officer took away an innocent life and that the culprit and his colleagues knew they would cover up for each other.
The inquest was conducted following consent given by the Director of Public Prosecutions.
In his post mortem report during hearing of the inquest, State Forensic Pathologist Dr Adam Mucheleng’anga testified that Mugala died of a gunshot. Dr. Mucheleng’anga said the mechanism of death was a physical disruption of the cervical spine and the manner of death was homicide.
