Angry mob kills suspected criminal

Angry mob of Patient Shop Community in Gardnersville Township a Monrovia suburb has flogged a suspected criminal to death. The victim is identified as 32-year-old Richards ‘Shinning Man’. Residents described the deceased as one of many criminals, who had terrorized inhabitants of Patient Shop community, Yanford Town, and adjacent communities, respectively.

Eyewitnesses, who trooped to the scene to take a glance of ‘Shinning Man’s corpse, claim he was involved in several crimes ranging from theft of properties, hijackings, and stabbing his victims, among others.

They narrate that he eventually met his waterloo when some unidentified residents of the community on Friday, 16 February caught him while being chased by another angry mob from an adjacent community, Yanford Town.

The Battle of Waterloo was fought on Sunday, 18 June 1815, near Waterloo in present-day Belgium, then part of the United Kingdom of the Netherlands.

A French army under the command of Napoleon Bonaparte was defeated by two of the armies of the Seventh Coalition: a British-led Allied army under the command of the Duke of Wellington, and a Prussian army commanded by Gebhard Leberecht von Blücher, Prince of Wahlstatt. The battle marked the end of the 20 year Napoleonic Wars.

Residents claim ‘Shining Man’ was a nephew of Yanford Town Community chairman (name withheld) who had consistently advised the victim to desist from criminal activities, but he refused to listen.

Kollie Kpedeh, who has fallen prey to ‘Shining Man’s operations in the community, explains that he (Kollie) was hijacked by the victim and cohorts last year, making away with all of his money and materials while returning from work between Dry Rice Market and Patient Shop communities.

According to him, two of his colleagues were similarly robbed of cash and personal effects allegedly by the victim and his accomplices.

Meanwhile, the deceased was left lying in a nearby drainage close to the road, protected by officers of the Liberia National Police (LNP) who prevented people from coming close to the vicinity of the corpse covered in banana leaves.

Eyewitnesses detail that the victim’s private parts were severely tempered with by his captives, something they say might have caused his demise.

However, the corpse was subsequently removed from the drainage on Saturday, February 17, by some of his associates and immediately taken for burial.

Up to press time on Monday, 19 February this paper received no report of arrest in connection with the lynching.

-Editing by Jonathan Browne