News
Weligama fatal shooting raises questions over communication lapses in police ops
View(s):By Sandun Jayawardana
Key questions remain over the shooting at Pelana in Weligama last Sunday (31) that left a police officer dead and another injured.
The dead and injured officers were part of a Colombo Crime Division (CCD) team that, police said, was on a drug raid in the area. Police Sergeant Upul Chaminda Kumara (46) was killed in the incident, while a Sub-Inspector (SI) was injured.
The eight-member CCD team that got caught up in the shooting was in Weligama as part of the CCD’s investigation into the network of alleged drug trafficker Nadun Chinthaka Wickramaratne, alias “Harak Kata.” They were also looking to arrest those who aided last September’s botched escape attempt by “Harak Kata” while he was being held in the custody of the Criminal Investigation Department (CID). Four suspects from the Matara area who allegedly aided and abetted the escape attempt are already in CCD custody.
Sgt Chaminda Kumara: Killed by police fire
The day before the incident, a CCD team arrested 11 suspects from around Colombo and Matara. Police claimed these suspects—seven males and four females—were closely associated with another overseas-based drug trafficker who is allegedly helping to run Harak Kata’s drug trafficking network and who had been instrumental in organising the latter’s escape attempt from the CID. The 11 that were arrested were from a list of 30 suspects identified as persons connected to this drug trafficking ring, Police Spokesman Senior Superintendent of Police (SSP) Nihal Thalduwa told a press conference the day after the shooting.
The incident happened in the midst of the country-wide “Yukthiya” (Justice) police operation that was launched last month targeting drug traffickers and their distribution networks. The CCD team that got caught up in the shooting was the second team from the division that had gone to the Matara area that day. While the first CCD team that had left Colombo for Matara earlier in the day informed area police of their presence, there are questions about whether the second team that arrived in the evening had done so. Initial indications are that this was not done, police sources said.
Around 2 a.m. on Sunday, the CCD team, who were in a white van and in civvies, claimed to have spotted a suspicious person loitering near a hotel from where the first CCD team had arrested a main suspect the previous day. They had stopped the van nearby and had attempted to search the suspect when he fled. Officers who attempted to pursue had then come under fire, according to the CCD, prompting the officers to return fire. While the exchange of fire was taking place, a mobile patrol from the Weligama Police arrived. These officers had only seen a group of people in a white van and in civilian clothing opening fire in front of a hotel and had believed they were an organised gang. Accordingly, the sergeant in charge had ordered the officers in the vehicle to open fire on the van, according to the initial police report.
The CCD officers say they were blinded by the headlights of the police jeep behind them and believed they were taking fire from two sides. By this point, the van had sustained gunfire damage, and two officers had been hit. Whether the officers were struck by gunfire from the Weligama police’s mobile patrol or the suspect or suspects the CCD team was pursuing remains uncertain for now as investigators try to piece together exactly what happened.
With two officers injured, police sources said the van sped away from the scene and made its way to the Imaduwa interchange of the Southern Expressway, where the CCD team had identified themselves to the police officers at the toll gate and asked for assistance to transport the injured to hospital. A Suwaseriya ambulance had taken the injured to the Karapitiya Teaching Hospital, where Sergeant Chaminda Kumara succumbed to his injuries. He was posthumously promoted to the rank of SI.
The scene of the shooting incident in Weligama
The funeral of SI Kumara, a father of two from Galewela, was held on Wednesday. Both Public Security Minister Tiran Alles and Acting Inspector General of Police Deshabandu Tennakoon were on hand to pay their last respects to the fallen officer. His family was also awarded compensation, with President Ranil Wickremesinghe contributing Rs. 2.5 million while the Police Department added Rs. 1.7 million.
Regarding why the CCD officers chose to take the expressway rather than try to take their injured colleagues to hospitals located close to Weligama, SSP Thalduwa said that given the team was from Colombo, it was likely that they did not have much of an idea where the closest hospital was. “They had just been shot at and had injured people in the van. But they would have known that they needed to take the expressway to get to the Karapitiya Hospital, which was what they did,” he told the Sunday Times.
He said further investigations were continuing into the entire incident and police were also looking to identify and arrest the suspect or suspects who allegedly opened fire on the CCD officers.
The shooting took place on the main road in front of a popular hotel in Weligama. Police clarified that the hotel had no involvement in the incident and that the suspect, who had been arrested the day before the incident, had been at a different hotel nearby.
A lack of proper coordination between law enforcement agencies has led to similar, though less deadly, incidents before. Last August, four Excise Department officers were arrested by the Bambalapitiya Police after they opened fire on a car carrying suspected drug traffickers who were attempting to escape. At the time, the alleged traffickers escaped in a three-wheeler after abandoning their vehicle. Police in that incident had responded to reports that an unidentified group in a van had opened fire on a car before fleeing the scene.
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