Shop Manager In West Hills Mall Incident Remanded

A District Court in Sowutuom has remanded in police custody the shop manager alleged to have used a taser on a 33-year-old man leading to his death.

The suspect, Boafo Osei Kwame, Shop Manager of Max Buy Ghana Limited, dealers of electrical appliances within the West Hills Mall was hauled before the court on Thursday.

He is on a provisional charge of murder.

The facts presented in court indicate that the complainant in the case is Bernard Boanor Denkyi, an Operations Manager at West Hills Mall located at Weija.

While the accused is the Shop Manager of Max Buy Ghana Limited, also located within the West Hills Mall.

On January 30, 2023, the prosecution said Sergeant Daniel Abeiku stationed at the Visibility Unit of the Ghana Police Service, Headquarters detailed to perform duties at the Mall, was patrolling the Mall when he saw Shadrack Arloo, 33, now deceased and Ibrahim Seshi, a witness in the case with a backpack at their back.

The deceased and the witness’ movement at the Mall became suspicious and the police called the deceased for him to search his backpack.

Per the facts, the deceased opened the backpack, removed something wrapped in a black polythene bag from the backpack and put it in his back pocket and started running outside.

The policeman then pursued the deceased and arrested him.

The deceased, however, struggled with the policeman when he was being cuffed and in the process, he removed the wrapped polythene bag from his back pocket and swallowed it.

“The accused person who also saw the incident rushed to the scene and removed his personal Taser and shocked the deceased.

“The deceased fell unconscious as a result and was rushed to the Somotech hospital within the Mall for treatment but was pronounced dead on arrival by the medical doctor on duty,” the prosecution narrated.

After the incident, the accused was arrested and the taser was retrieved from him.

During the interrogation, the accused stated that he brought the taser for self-defence.

The prosecution said, “the body of the deceased was carefully inspected but no physical marks of assault were found”.

The body was later removed and deposited at the Police Hospital for preservation and autopsy.

Despite the facts presented in court, counsel for the accused person stressed that a post-mortem report would make things clearer as the facts equally suggest that the deceased struggled with a police officer and also swallowed a black polythene bag.

According to the defence team, the taser the accused allegedly used was not even working.