POLICE in Luanshya have shot a 51-year-old drunk woman in the leg for resisting arrest.
Her 3-year-old grandchild was grazed by a bullet.
Beauty Mambwe of Twashuka in Walale compound was on Saturday night shot in the right leg after she resisted arrest in a police patrol.
A check at Thompson District Hospital revealed that the woman’s leg has since been amputated.
“I was at home drinking beer with my grandchildren when suddenly police appeared and everyone ran into the house, leaving me and my grand child standing outside, and that was when police shot at me and the bullet grazed my grandchild,” she recounted.
She said her grandson sustained bruises on his left leg and hand where the bullet grazed him.
Mambwe, who is a mother of 10 and takes care of her three children and six grandchildren, appealed for assistance as she was the breadwinner.
Mambwe is admitted to the hospital and her condition is stable.
And Luanshya District Commissioner Patrick Maipambe, who expressed regret over the incident, said the incident happened over the weekend when police raided a house where people had assembled to drink ‘lutuku’, an illicit local brew.
He explained that the gun went off accidentally as the woman was wrestling with the police in an attempt to evade arrest.
Maipambe said police have since instituted investigations into the matter.
He also confirmed that the grandson was reported to have been attended to and released from Thompson District Hospital.
The government has closed bars and nightclubs to avoid overcrowding in its efforts to combat the spread of COVID-19.
But people have resorted to illegal selling of alcohol in residential areas, which has promoted police to conduct random patrols to disperse the crowds.
Credit: ZANIS
