A suspect linked to the murder of a detective with the Directorate of Criminal Investigation was Tuesday morning shot dead in a dramatic shootout in Kayole, Nairobi.
Police said John Kamau aka Faruk, was killed by police bullets as he fought a group of detectives who had cornered him at his hideout in the Soweto area.
Faruk shot and injured one of the officers who were out to arrest him prompting the other colleagues to open fire killing him.
A pistol that was reportedly used in the shooting of Detective David Mayaka in an attack in Mihango on August 8 was recovered from the suspect.
Police said the weapon- a Ceska pistol had 12 bullets when it was recovered from Faruk.
Nairobi police boss Adamson Bungei said the injured officer was rushed to hospital in stable condition.
In an operation mounted by sleuths from the elite Crime Research and Intelligence Bureau based at the DCI Nairobi regional command, a team trailed Faruk to his house on Tuesday at about 4 am.
They surrounded the house and ordered him to surrender in a standoff.
According to Bungei, he instead came out firing and injured one officer.
“This forced the other officers to fatally injure the suspect. We wanted him to face justice,” Bungei said.
Police had been trailing Faruk for the past weeks after he and two others shot and killed Mayaka in an ambush as he changed the tyre of his car on August 8.
Since then, he has been moving from one house to the other within Kayole.
His other accomplice Alex Wanjiru, 23, was arrested hiding in his grandmother’s house in Kikuyu, Kiambu.
He was arrested on August 15.
Police said he had escaped from Kayole immediately after the incident and sought refuge at his grandmother’s home in Ruthingiti, Kikuyu subcounty before detectives tracked him down.
A team of detectives handling the matter say they placed the two at the crime scene and recovered the motorbike used as the gateway means during the incident.
Police last week recovered the motorcycle.
The recovery of the motorcycle came after the team conducted thorough forensic investigations that placed the suspect and his accomplices at the scene of the incident, at the exact time of the murder.
A comprehensive analysis conducted by ballistic experts based at the DCI National Forensic Lab has since linked the firearm that fired the fatal shot a C2, to five previous robbery incidents in the city, DCI boss Mohamed Amin said.
So far, detectives have also identified the one other suspect involved in the murder most foul.
He is Henry Njihia who has been missing since then.