NamPol Deputy Inspector General, Major General Elias Mutota, says a case of murder has been opened against the police officers who shot and killed five men in Okahandja last Tuesday.

Major General Mutota's remarks are contained in a three-page formal report released by his office on Tuesday.

Mutota says that the police, through intelligence, learned of a planned robbery at a farm in the |Khomas district and that the alleged robbers also planned to rob a gambling house, JS Slots, at Okahandja.

According to Major General Mutota, the officers pursued the suspects from the Okapuka police checkpoint to Okahandja, where they disappeared, but the suspects were later spotted at a gambling house in front of the Okahandja municipality, prompting a hot pursuit.

It is Major General Mutota's version that the suspects, during the chase, opened fire at the police vehicle, resulting in an exchange of shots before the vehicle came to a halt.

One suspect is then said to have jumped out of the vehicle and fled the scene.

The police, upon their approach to the suspect's vehicle, when it stopped in front of a biltong shop en route to the Nau-Aib location, saw that five suspects were in the vehicle and were struck by bullets; none of the three officers were shot.

Mutota further states that the suspects were declared dead by medical officers who were dispatched to the scene.

The deceased have been identified as Abed Andreas, Marius Ipinge, Malaika Kotokeni, Erick Marin, and Flavianus Endjala.

The suspects, according to Major General Mutota, had combined 24 criminal cases, ranging from attempted murder to armed robbery and robbery with aggravated circumstances.

A further case of attempted murder and malicious damage to property has been opened against the suspect who got away.