By Yang Ater Yang
A police officer in Rumbek town, Lakes State of South Sudan, has succumbed to a hand grenade explosion that he detonated under unclear circumstances, injuring six other family members.
The police spokesperson in the state, Maj. Elijah Mabor Makuac, confirmed the incident to the No. 1 Citizen Daily Newspaper on Friday.
“It was yesterday (Thursday) at 10:00 p.m. when one of our police personnel, identified as a sergeant, Wade Makuac Aluet, detonated a hand grenade, killing himself and wounding six others,” said Maj. Elijah.
The wounded are family members of the deceased police officer, including his father and aunt.
According to police preliminary investigations, the deceased officer came home while drunk, and late in the night.
According to the police report, the deceased was provoked by his father who accused him of squandering his long-awaited salary for drinking alcohol, yet his children were suffering.
The man did not take the provocation from the father lightly, but he was prompted by anger, coupled with alcohol influence, to detonate a hand grenade that killed him and injured six others, including the father.
However, a revelation from the police spokesperson indicates that the deceased officer had not received his salary by the time he committed suicide.
“In fact, he was in a queue for almost 2 days, as the line was very long, and he never managed to receive his salary simply because there was no chance,” Makuac said.
Maj. Makuac explained that the officer was yet to receive his salary, but when he later went home drunk, the family members doubted him, which made the father confront the deceased, unfortunately leading to the tragic incident.
“This is the little information that we gathered, and the police are still investigating to find out what was really the cause of the incident,” he noted.
The state police spokesperson, however, advised members of the organized forces to always keep their guns and ammunition in military hardware stores rather than carry them home.
“We can just consider it a suicide also, and what involved the gun was simply because they took guns home, and if he (Wade) had been aware or decided to leave that grenade in the store, such an incident would not have happened, which involves the hand grenade,” he said.
“I am advising everybody to store his weapon in the barracks where there are soldiers and where there’s good safety for the weapons at the place for his or her duty,” Maj. Makuac emphasized.