The police have shot and killed three suspected armed robbers in a fierce gun battle in the bush behind the Social Security and National Insurance Trust (SSNIT) flats at Asuoyeboa, in Kumasi in the Ashanti Region on Wednesday night.
Three other accomplices, according to the police managed to escape with gunshot wounds.
One of the dead identified as Bernard Ali, the police said, was the kingpin of the gang, and had been on the police wanted list.
Deputy Ashanti Regional Police Commander, Assistant Commissioner of Police (ACP) Osei Ampofo-Duku, told newsmen here yesterday that the Regional Command picked up intelligence report that the gang planned to rob a house behind the SSNIT flat, on the night of July 25, 2016.
Consequently, the police laid ambush and saw a taxi pulling up and signalled for it to stop but the driver ignored and sped off amidst firing at the Police.
ACP Ampofo-Duku said the Police gave the taxi a hot chase and the driver of the taxi stopped, allowing three of the armed robbers to run into the bush while still firing shots at the Police.
The Deputy Commander said the taxi driver and the other occupants believed to be armed with AK 47 assault rifles and a pump action gun, managed to escape with the taxi while the three others were later found dead in the bush from gunshot wounds.
ACP Ampofo-Duku, recalled that the Police, on July 21, 2016, received information that four robbers had operated at a location between Obuasi and Jacobu and had killed a taxi driver who was conveying a sick Chinese to a nearby hospital.
The Police claimed the robbers used a pump action gun in that operation with the deceased, Bernard Ali, and his accomplices suspected to have committed the crime, adding that police intelligence revealed that the suspects had relocated to Kumasi.
He said two locally manufactured pistols, two mobile handsets, two empty cartridges, two cigarette lighters, two spare handset batteries, one catapult, a knife, a hood and cash of GHc24.00 found on them.
ACP Ampofo-Duku pleaded with the general public and medical facilities in the region to be on the lookout for anybody with gunshot wounds and report to the police.
He commended the public, especially those who volunteered information that led to the operation.
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