It is 4am in the morning and Sammy is already up for his routine morning exercise. He has been doing this since he was a teenager. The routine usually involves some squats and push-up exercises before embarking on his 5km-long jogging.

Unknown to Sammy, this morning’s routine would be his last. After completing the first phase of his session, he proceeded to the final lap, which was the jogging. Strangely, the rather peaceful town of Taifa seemed to be under siege with sporadic gunshots.

Gradually the gunshots increased and Sammy became alarmed, so he hurried home, cutting short his regime which was at the time about 1km complete. About 100m to his gate, the gunshots intensified and he was in a desperate hurry to take refuge in his house.

Before he could reach the gate, a voice commanded him to stop and before he could give a second-thought, “pow-pow”, two gunshots to the back. His life robbed from him. Everything happened so fast, he thought he was dreaming. But no, he was breathing his last. He died on the spot.

Those who shot Sammy were not armed robbers. They were policemen who supposedly have been trained to overpower armed robbers when it is safe to do so. It was these policemen, whose core duty is to protect civilians, who took Sammy’s life.

For a job such as policing, mistakes are bound to occur, but it is a shame when the police make up stories to cover their mistakes. News of Sammy’s death threw the entire neighbourhood into apprehension. Those who knew him were agitated, and those who didn’t pondered his sad fate.

Later that evening, the renowned FM station, ‘Asomdwoe’ Radio, aired the story and when the Police Commander in charge of Taifa was called to answer queries about the incident, he said Sammy was part of an armed robbery gang terrorising the area.

Sammy’s mother was traumatised and his brother incensed. Sammy was a 28-year-old sales executive for an insurance company and the man of the house. What was certain was that he was not the armed robber the police wanted him to be.

According to the Police Commander, a quantity of marijuana and a pocket knife were found on Sammy after being gunned down. Also, rounds of live ammunition were found at the spot where he died. Hence the verdict: he was an armed robber.

That was three years ago, and the remains of Sammy have long being laid to rest.  The policemen who gunned down Sammy still go about their duties as usual. Of course, it was their word against Sammy’s family’s – as if to say the policemen have been mandated to shoot robbers when they are not armed. But the news became stale and everybody forgot about Sammy’s family.

Each year, we are made to believe that almost everybody the police kill – which is quite frequent – was an armed robber. That is to say the police are at liberty to kill these robbers.

Policemen, understandably, have their lives to protect when in danger. But here I am not even talking about “armed robbers” who died in a shoot-out with the police (it is indeed very difficult to disprove the police’s version of such events), but rather those killed before being labelled as robbers.

Many a time the police, rather than give us a sense of security, only instill fear and apprehensiveness in us. Take the case of the four persons who were gunned down in a taxi cab by the police at Dansoman in 2006. The police claimed one of the deceased had been on their wanted list for some time. However the other occupants, including two women said to be traders, were not spared their lives.

These shooting incidents have been with us for a very long time, and listening to recent comments by top policemen, I don’t think the trend is likely to change.

Every time such incidents happen, the police launch investigations into it as if to bring out any reforms, but nothing of that sort sees the light of day. At least, the police should prove to us that indeed the persons killed were not only armed, but they sought to put the lives of the policemen in danger.

There have been times when the police have proved that their lives were in danger.  But there have also been times when innocent people have been killed by trigger-happy policemen. So many times if you ask me.

Last month, two policemen were mistaken for armed robbers and gunned down. As the Public Affairs Director of the Ghana Police Service, DSP Cephas Arthur, explained it, “a police officer who had sustained injuries from gun shots and was being rushed to the hospital by another police officer – [both] were mistaken to be criminals and were inadvertently shot by the police, resulting in their death.”

Just like that. Wrong judgement. This is the first time, to the best of my knowledge, that the police have publicly admitted their mistake. How sad that it happened this way. Nevertheless, it remains to be seen what will happen to the policemen who opened fire on their colleagues.

Why can’t the police opt for rubber bullets if they can’t be trusted to make correct judgements? Is it more expensive than the innocent lives we put at risk?

As unfortunate as it maybe, it took the death of their own colleagues to admit their mistake. Nevertheless, the mysteries surrounding the death of Sammy, the two traders, and hundreds of others have not been unravelled.

The trend remains a dangerous one. The marijuana, the pocket knife and the live rounds of ammunition, how did they find their way into Sammy’s pocket? As his mother would say, it is only God that we have to entrust our lives to, not these trigger-happy bunch shooting at anything!

I’m out!