Police opened fire on a three-wheeler in the Veluwana area of Borella after its occupants allegedly failed to comply with orders to stop, police said.
According to police, the vehicle had been driven in defiance of orders from officers attached to the Kompannavidiya Police Division. Five people were travelling in the three-wheeler at the time.
Three swords were found inside the vehicle and taken into police custody. Police said the five individuals are residents of Kolonnawa.
Ada Derana carried the report as a news alert on Thursday morning. Its account does not state whether the five occupants were taken into custody, whether anyone was injured by the gunfire, or what prompted officers to signal the vehicle to stop in the first place. No arrests have been announced, and police have not said whether the occupants are being investigated in connection with any earlier incident.
The Kompannavidiya division covers Slave Island and adjoining parts of central Colombo, bordering the Borella area where the vehicle was stopped.
Police use of firearms against vehicles that fail to halt is periodically reported in Colombo, typically in operations targeting suspects linked to organised crime groups. No such link has been stated in this case.
Update: five arrested, and a motive
NewsFirst reported later on Thursday that five suspects were taken into custody following the incident, and that officers recovered three swords allegedly in their possession, citing police.
It also supplied the missing motive: police said the five were travelling to engage in a confrontation arising from a personal dispute at the time of their arrest.
That answers the first of the questions left open above. Ada Derana’s morning account said only that five people were travelling in the three-wheeler and that swords were found — it did not state that anyone was arrested, which is why this article originally recorded that no arrests had been announced.
Daily Mirror carried the incident the same day in terms matching Ada Derana’s — five people inside the three-wheeler, three swords recovered, further investigations under way — without mentioning arrests. Of the three outlets, only NewsFirst reports the arrests and the personal dispute.
Still unresolved
No outlet has said whether anyone was hit by the gunfire, whether any of the five was injured, or what prompted officers to signal the vehicle to stop before it drove on. None reports where the five are being held, when they are due before a magistrate, or whether the “personal dispute” involves a party already known to police. Ada Derana’s identification of the five as Kolonnawa residents has not been repeated by either of the other two outlets.
