The Ashanti Regional Police command has placed a Gh¢5000.00 bounty on the heads of the suspected armed robbers who killed a police officer on Thursday night.
The police corporal with the SWAT Unit stationed at the Kumasi Central Police was shot dead during a robbery spree at a hotel at Denkyembuoso, near Kumasi.
Corporal Frank Essel unknowingly drove into the suspected robbers who had besieged the hotel and were robbing guests.
A receptionist at the hotel who was also shot by the hooded robbers is however receiving treatment at the Komfo Anokye Teaching Hospital.
Corporal Essel was wearing a white shirt over his police trouser, with a police pendant hanging in his car. It was unclear what had sent him to the place.
Assistant Superintendent of Police (ASP) Mr Yussif Mohammed Tanko, in charge of the Police Public Affairs Unit in the Ashanti Region, said the incident happened around 8pm on Thursday night.
According to him, the robbers had attacked some of the guests at the hotel.
Eyewitnesses told the police that a car pulled up and the robbers went out and later heard gun shots.
Not long after, a police patrol team got on the scene and engaged the robbers in a shootout.
They however managed to escape and it was later that the police found the deceased in his, ASP Tanko said.
