By Salim Mutuma
Three criminals were last night shot dead and a firearm recovered following a gunfight with detectives.
The criminals had just staged a robbery and were planning to stage another when they ran into the sleuths.
The officers laid an ambush following a tip-off from a resident that some armed men were about to commit a robbery within an area along Mombasa road.
Minutes later, six suspicious looking men who matched the descriptions given by the distraught caller approached the detectives’ vehicle, parked at the edge of the road they were using.
With nowhere to run, the criminals were ordered to stop and state their mission but two of the them opened fire towards the vehicle shattering one of its side mirrors.
The officers responded fatally wounding three of the thugs while a similar number escaped, with gunshot injuries.
The bodies were moved to City Mortuary with manhunt for the other criminals underway.
A barreta pistol loaded with four rounds of ammunition, one toy pistol, one pocket phone, one HP laptop, one hammer, one Somali sword and six assorted mobile phones were recovered from the thugs.
A man of Asian origin who had been robbed at gunpoint before the detectives laid the ambush, later confirmed some of the recovered items to be his.
