FREETOWN, Sierra Leone (AP) — A top police official in Sierra Leone says a policeman will be charged with murder for shooting a civilian motorcyclist, after hundreds of bikers threatened to attack police in revenge.
Chief Superintendent of Police in charge of Police Community Affairs Soloku Conteh told national television on Saturday that police management is "embarrassed by the incident."
The aggrieved bikers say the policeman killed the motorcyclist early Friday. A police statement says the biker rode through a police checkpoint on the outskirts of Freetown, the capital.
Conteh said policemen are given rules of engagement allowing them to shoot only if lives are in danger.
This is the latest of several similar incidents. Earlier this month policemen shot dead two youths in Freetown, as policemen suspected they were robbers. Locals then turned on police in that neighborhood.
