The situation in Garden Hills in Port Moresby remains tense after a woman was injured and two men allegedly shot and killed by a police officer last night.
The deceased men are from Okapa in Eastern Highland Province while the injured woman is from the Central Province.
The family of the deceased want answers and are calling on police to arrest the rogue policeman.
According to witnesses claim, the police officer who is a resident of Garden Hills has a history of regularly terrorising residents of the settlement at the market.
“We were at the market selling our produce when the policeman came, took off his shirt and started threatening us with his weapon, chasing us all from the market,” said a woman seller.
A spokesman for the family of the deceased, Jack Amos, said the policeman destroyed the market and then proceeded to fire around 5 to 15 rounds before being confronted by another policeman who tried to disarm him, causing him to drop the weapon.
“After the weapon fell, he picked it up and ran up the hill to my older brother’s house where he and his son were and shot them.”
Amos claims they then brought the bodies to the Boroko Police Station to lay a complaint, only to find officers at the station, drinking beer.
“After we saw that they were drinking, we did not talk to them as they were all under the influence of alcohol. We decided to return to Garden Hills and requested assistance from the officers but were not given any.”
Amos said they then returned to Garden Gills and set up roadblocks to get the attention of police to attend to the matter, as there was no police presence.
He also claimed that a vehicle from a security firm, Tactical Solution International also showed up and opened fire without provocation.
He also alleged that an elderly woman from Simbu was allegedly assaulted and her trade store looted by the rogue officer who loaded the store goods into his vehicle and drove off.
The family of the deceased say they would like to deal with the Police Criminal Investigations Division (CID) to assist with investigations.
“We have advised the community here not to take the law into their own hands as I have already advised the police that if anyone in the community does cause any more problems, they can arrest them on the spot.”
“We are also calling on the police to arrest the shooter before commencing their investigation.
“Many police officers are not qualified to be police officers, as seen when we went with the bodies of our relatives to the Boroko Police station. We sat there from 7pm until 1am in the morning with no one to help us.”