Our brother wasn’t mentally ill – Family of man killed by the police
Relatives of Owusu Anyimadu, the man believed to be mentally ill and was killed by police at the Kwabeng Police Station are disputing police reports of the incident.
The family insists Owusu Anyimadu was not mentally ill.
According to the Eastern Regional Police Public Relations Officer, DSP Ebenezer Tetteh, the deceased stormed the police premises armed with a machete on Sunday threatening to kill officers on duty.
The two officers present fled the scene and called for help from a SWAT team at Akyem Kwabeng.
A member of the SWAT team according to the police shot the upper part of Owusu Anyimadu leading to his death after efforts to overpower him failed.
Speaking on Eyewitness News, Owusu Anyimadu’s brother, Ampem Darkwah, called the police account a lie and threatened to report the matter to the Inspector General of Police to seek legal redress.
“The police are lying because when he went there, there were only two police personnel on duty and they were not holding anything. So if he wanted to do anything, he would have killed them before the SWAT people came…We have to report to the IGP to investigate and take action or we will go to court.”
Ampem Darkwah said his brother worked at Burma Camp and went to Kwabeng to attend a funeral ceremony.
Also speaking on Eyewitness News, DSP Ebenezer Tetteh maintained that Owusu Anyimadu was mentally ill and a threat to the officers at the station as “someone who was prepared to back his words with actions.”
“The information available to us is to the contrary. Before he came to the police station, our investigation was that he went to two other places and this was someone who was mentally challenged.”
DSP Tetteh said the police had tried to disarm the man with non-lethal force but failed.
Though he did not give specifics, DSP Tetteh said the police aimed for Owusu Anyimadu legs but ended up shooting him in the upper body.
He was also unable to give the exact number of shots that were fired on the deceased.