KILLER COP SOBS IN DOCK
‘I KILLED HER BY MISTAKE’
THE police officer who is being accused of murdering his wife was seen sobbing awaiting to appear in court.
He continued crying throughout his court appearance and said he killed his wife by mistake.
The murder suspect, Tichaona Chirinhe, appeared before Harare magistrate Judith Taruvinga and when he was asked to confirm the statement provided to the court by the State, he said the police had omitted the words ‘ it is very unfortunate.’
“I didn’t intentionally shoot my wife as alleged, the police officer omitted the words, ‘ it is very unfortunate’ which I wrote in my original statement to show how remorseful I am because I was cleaning my pistol and didn’t realise that I hadn’t taken out all the bullets.
“When I squeezed the trigger I shot the now deceased who was sleeping by my side, this was my wife of 15 years and I had no reason whatsoever to kill her, it happened by mistake,” he said.
As a result, the statement was not confirmed.
The State led by Lancelot Mutsokoti alleged that on December 27, at around 10:30pm, Chirinhe and his wife Juliana entered their bedroom where they had an unknown dispute which prompted him to pull out his 9mm pistol serial number 5208D ZRP number 1711 from his waist, fired it and shot his wife in the groin.
Neighbours heard the noise and gathered around the house and helped Chirinhe take his injured wife to a 24-hour hospital where she was later referred to Parirenyatwa where she died while being attended to.
The firearm was recovered from the couple’s bedroom together with one spent cartridge.
Chirinhe was referred to the High Court for bail consideration and was ordered to return to court on January 12 2021 for routine remand.