The mob responded quickly and began pelting stones at the police officers. Gor decided to escape to hide somewhere in the village as police retreated to Ndhiwa station.
But the mob later followed Gor to where he was hiding, assaulted him with crude weapons, killing him instantly on Sunday at dawn.
The mob went and torched the house of another man whom they suspected of having collaborated with Gor in the alleged murder. The suspect’s mother’s house was also torched.
North Kaganda Assistant Chief Veroon Agaga and his Wanjawa Rapedhi sublocation counterpart Neto Akech said the irate mob accused police of failing to arrest the suspects over Okuto’s murder.
“Residents wanted the police to arrest Gor instead of coming with him at home as a way of protecting him. It is wrong for the public to take the law into their hands,” Akech said.
Agaga said some of the residents were angered by seeing the suspects in the village yet they had not been arrested.
“They have not been living in the village but they could come occasionally and disappear. Residents were not comfortable with their appearance in the village,” Agaga said.
Ndhiwa subcounty police commander Paul Rioba said police had to retreat to undertake the arrest during the day.
“Our officers did not want to wage war with the residents at night. They retreated back to the station so that they could undertake the arrest later in the day because they had gathered all the necessary information,” Rioba said.
Rioba said investigations had been launched to enable justice to prevail in both incidents.
“The prime suspects have been identified and investigations are going on to aid their arrests,” Rioba said.
The body was moved to the Manyatta Kobodo mortuary.
