Constable Edwin Kabasiya shot Constable Lennox Kapila because the latter refused to arrest a man with whom he was in a TV dispute with, Police spokesperson Esther Mwaata Katongo has revealed.

Katongo was updating journalists on why Kabasiya, who is still on the run, shot Kapila in a statement, Monday.

Kapila succumbed to the gunshot wound at Levy Mwanawasa General Hospital, Saturday.

“Brief facts concerning Constable Kapila’s shooting according to eye witnesses are that the suspect Constable Kabasiya and wife had a television set which needed to be repaired and later be sold. The television set was taken to a named technician (tv repairer) within Kaunda Square and after some days, the technitian paid a deposit of K500 remaining with a balance. However, on 4th January,2019 at around 20:00 hours, the wife to Kabasiya went to Munali Police Post to have the technician arrested because it had taken sometime for him to pay the balance. She found Constable Kapila on duty who advised her to take civil litigation because the matter was civil, but the woman insisted that the technician be arrested. Const Kapila stood his ground and Kabasiya’s wife left. A few minutes later, Constable Kabasiya appeared at Munali Police Post in uniform armed with an AK47 rifle,” narrated Katongo.

“He wanted to confirm if the technician was detained and he proceeded to check in the cells and in the Arrest and Prisoner’s Property Book (APPB) and he did not find the name of the technician. He went outside where Constable Kapila was standing and started pestering him about the whereabouts of the technician, but Kapila told him that they had not arrested him. Kabasiya insisted and started threatening Kapila that he was going to shoot him and he later fired the gun.”