Police deny shooting allegation

 By ZACHERY PER
POLICE are deflecting the blame on the death of a man in Kainantu town, saying the shooting which caused it came from owners of a shop which was being looted.
Eastern Highlands provincial police commander Superintendent Alex N’Drasal was responding to public outrage over the death of Philip Olivi, who was working inside the Singaut Christian Bookshop, when a bullet hit him.
He later died at the Goroka Provincial Hospital’s accident and emergency department.
The shooting began when a supermarket was looted by people protesting the arrest of two university students who were part of a group conducting an awareness in town.
Family spokesman Vincent Yagure said Unitech students were collecting money from the people to help the injured UPNG students in Port Moresby when police arrested two of them.
“The crowd went over to the station and requested police to release the student leaders. But Kainantu police refused,” he said.
Some men then broke into the K-Mart supermarket and looted it. Police tried to disperse the crowd and there were shots fired.
N’Drasal denied it came from police officers. He said it came from the Asian shopkeepers whose shops were being looted. Olivi, 30, was from Amora village in Barola.