Kenya: Police in Murang’a County on Friday evening shot dead four suspected gangsters in Maragua constituency.

The police recovered a pistol with six rounds of ammunition, the getaway motorcycle, two knives, fake bodaboda ID cards as well as two slings from the slain suspects.

According to Murang’a South Deputy County Commissioner (DCC), Mr Gitonga Murungi, the eight-man gang had been on the radar of detectives for the last four months.

“We have been trailing them for some time following a spate of robberies on shops, carjackings and muggings in the area,” Murungi said.

He added that on several occasions the gangsters had escaped police dragnet, until the law enforcers finally caught up with them on Friday.

“On Friday we got word that suspicious individuals who were riding on two motorcycles had been spotted near Mung’etho estate along Sagana Kenol road,” he said.

Four of the suspects arrived at the petrol station at 7pm and took positions in an apparent plot to robber the attendants.

“We did not fancy a situation where the four would have used firearms in a petrol station since a fire could have easily erupted hence presenting us with a bigger complication,” Murungi said.

It is then that detectives were given the go-ahead to confront the four suspects who would approach the station from a nearby feeder road and ignore those who were already at the petrol station.

“A few metres from the station, the officers confronted the suspects and ordered them to surrender. Instead, one of them fired two shots at the officers,” he said.

The officers returned fire and the four were fatally injured, while their accomplices at the petrol station fled from the scene with officers in hot pursuit.

The bodies of the slain suspects were moved to Murang’a County Funeral Home, while the recovered items were taken for preservation at the Murang’a South Directorate of Criminal Investigations (DCI) headquarters.