Police opened fire on a three-wheeler in the Nagoda area of Kalutara on Monday after its driver ignored an order to stop and was chased for about four kilometres. The driver was wounded and admitted to hospital, and police say a subsequent search of the vehicle turned up suspected narcotics.
A team from the Kalutara Crime Investigation Division was carrying out a search operation when it signalled a three-wheeler it considered suspicious to stop at Bombuwala, Hiru News reported at 7.22 a.m. Colombo time. The Daily Mirror filed its own account ten minutes later.
The driver did not stop. Police pursued the vehicle for close to four kilometres before opening fire at Nagoda, injuring him and bringing the vehicle to a halt. He was taken to Nagoda Teaching Hospital for treatment.
Both outlets say the driver is a resident of Rajawatta in Kalutara and is known by the alias “Rajawatta Sanju”. Both place the name in quotation marks, indicating it is how he is known rather than his name on record; neither gives his age or his name in full.
Hiru reports that the suspect was arrested along with the three-wheeler.
The drugs were found afterwards
The sequence the two filings describe matters. Police say the narcotics were recovered when the three-wheeler was searched after the shooting, not before the pursuit began. The stated grounds for signalling the vehicle to stop were that it looked suspicious during a search operation, and the stated grounds for opening fire were that the driver disobeyed the order to stop.
Neither outlet says what the drug was or how much was recovered.
Not reported
Neither filing gives the driver’s condition beyond the fact that he was hospitalised, where on his body he was hit, or how many officers discharged firearms.
Nothing is reported about any review of the use of the firearm. Police shootings during vehicle pursuits are not ordinarily accompanied by a published account of whether the discharge was within regulations, and neither outlet says whether the incident has been referred to the National Police Commission or to any internal inquiry. No magistrate’s involvement is mentioned, and the suspect has not been reported as produced in court.
Neither filing says what the Kalutara Crime Investigation Division’s search operation was targeting, or whether the driver was already known to police.
A separate Kalutara Nagoda case
This incident should not be confused with the T-56 shooting on Nagoda Road in Kalutara on 9 October, in which a restaurant owner was killed and his wife died in intensive care two days later. Police arrested a man described as the gunman in that case on 25 October, the day before this one. The two share a location and a weapon discharge but are unconnected on the facts reported.
Ada Derana could not be checked — its pages have returned a CloudFront error to this desk for 43 consecutive days. NewsFirst had not filed on the incident at the time of writing.