Panic at DCI headquarters after officer shoots himself dead
There was panic at the Directorate of Criminal Investigations (DCI) headquarters in Nairobi on October 11, 2023, after a police officer shot himself.
According to his colleagues, the officer who is yet to be identified is said to have walked out of the office before locking himself inside his car and shooting himself in the head with his pistol at the parking lot.
Police said that he died on the spot.
It was not immediately established why the police driver took his own life where he worked.
People around DCI headquarters were alerted by the sound of the gun which rang in the air from the parking lot at the operations section and on checking, they found him dead.
The bullet is said to have split his head. His body was moved to the mortuary pending an autopsy.
Senior officers were in the office at the time of the incident.
This is the latest such incident to happen in the service. Last week, a bizarre incident occurred on Thursday when a senior police officer based in Kayole, Nairobi, called an officer attached to DCI headquarters and threatened to shoot himself.
Officers rushed to his house at 31 Crescent Court, Githunguri location and found that he had been taken to Komarock Modern Hospital but died before he could be attended to.
Before he shot himself, Ouma is said to have shot a man identified as Philip Muhavi Ayieka, 35, on the left foot.
A Beretta pistol loaded with 12 rounds of ammunition were recovered in the house alongside two spent cartridges.
“No suicide note was found and the motive of the suicide is yet to be established,” police headquarters said.
Ouma had served in many parts of the country including OCS Jogoo Road police station and Makueni Traffic.
In the aftermath of the incident, the police recovered a pistol from the scene. The firearm contained 12 rounds of live ammunition, along with a spent cartridge.
This incident, though tragic, is not isolated. Cases of police officers taking their own lives have been on the rise in recent years.
In June this year, a Police Constable based at Kimala Matta police post in Taita Taveta county shot dead his senior before turning the gun on himself.
Constable Felix Koskei shot Corporal David Kazungu on the right hand side of the head and the bullet exited on the left side, again on chest and left upper leg. He died on the spot.
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