Wewak kidnap suspect shot dead

A SUSPECT in last week’s kidnapping of Wewak ANZ bank branch manager’s daughter had been shot dead by Wewak police during a dawn raid at Koikin village outside Wewak, East Sepik, on Tuesday.
Wewak police station commander Insp Damien Linus said four others who were in the house, when police surrounded a house, have also been arrested and were in police custody undergoing interrogation.
Police claimed that the five men, dressed in police uniform, gained entry into the bank manager’s house at Wewak Hill last Wednesday at 9am and stayed there until 2pm when they left with his two-year-old daughter.
The men told two women-servants that there were there to search for drugs, kept them under house arrest and waited for the manager who did not show up until after they left.
Police who were tipped off pursued the suspects to Dagua Market compound area where they abandoned their vehicle with the child unhurt and escaped on foot.
Linus said following the incident which was the first kidnap case for East Sepik his men worked around the clock to track down suspects on  Tuesday.
The suspect who was shot dead was covered in a blanket and was moving in a suspicious manner indicating that he was trying to attack police despite calls for him to surrender.
After he was shot and had the blanket removed, police found that he was armed with a pop gun.
According to police, the suspects were from the Gulf, Central, Western and East Sepik provinces that have been operating outside of East Sepik until they recently arrived in Wewak to carry out an assignment which cost them one life.
The identity of the deceased is not known and Wewak police are issuing a nationwide appeal for people to notify police if they were missing a relative or member of their community.