Stolen gun found on policeman

National

A missing police-issued firearm suspected to be used in a Tatana killing was confiscated from police officers during the formation of the government in Port Moresby last week, Crime Directorate Assistant Commissioner Victor Isouve said yesterday.
“We have confiscated two police-issued firearms from these police officers who were not part of the police contingent to be on patrol around the parliament during the government formation,” Isouve said.
“And one of the police-issued firearms had its serial number scratched. So, we will be doing a ballistic test on these two firearms to determine if they were used in outstanding cases  that involved police officers like the 2015 Tatana killing.”
Isouve said that one of the guns linked to the killing of Tatana villager Salle Naime on Jan 17, 2015, allegedly by six police officers, had gone missing from a police armoury.
The gun, which was to be presented in court by the prosecution, was important evidence in the case against the officers.
The firearm was locked at the Boroko Police Station armoury after it was returned from ballistic testing at the forensic laboratory.
Six officers were allegedly involved in the killing of Naime.
They are now on trial before the Waigani National Court and are charged with one count of wilful murder. They are Detective Sergeant Lawrence Welen, 53, from Buyang village, Lorengau Manus; Sergeant Philip Pokop, 40, from Powat village, Manus; Constable Ian Gunawi, 30, from Timboli village, Angoram, East Sepik; Constable Lawrence Sausa from Manus; Chief Inspector Maria Johns from Nungori village, East Sepik; and, Constable Jeffrey Sheikiot from Madang.
Isouve said that the suspects had gone to Tatana with a police unit to arrest the late Naime over the killing of former journalist Harold Farapo, whose body was found at the harbour in Port Moresby.
Police alleged that Naime had killed Farapo, then employed as a Kikori Pipeline Landowners’ Association executive a week earlier.