Two people were injured when a man opened fire from an upper floor of an apartment building on 6th Lane, Kollupitiya, in the early hours of Friday morning, police said. The suspected shooter has been arrested.

Hiru News reported that a man and a woman were admitted to the National Hospital after the shooting, which it placed at around 3.00 a.m. Police told Hiru that a person on an upper floor of the complex fired at two people who were outdoors, and that the shooting was carried out over a personal motive.

NewsFirst gave the injured as a 30-year-old woman and a 42-year-old man, and reported that the shooting followed an argument that escalated. It said the suspect was taken into custody along with the shotgun allegedly used, and that he is the son of a retired police officer — a detail no other outlet carried.

Daily Mirror confirmed two injured at a housing complex on the same lane but said the circumstances and the identities of those hurt had not been disclosed. Kollupitiya police are investigating.

Where the accounts differ

Ada Derana, which filed earliest at about 6.20 a.m. and refers to the area by its alternate name Colpetty, gave a materially different account: it reported that one woman was injured, and that the gunman fired at two women standing outside the building. Three outlets against one report two people injured, and both NewsFirst and Hiru describe the victims as a man and a woman.

The time also splits — Ada Derana and Hiru both say around 3.00 a.m., NewsFirst says around 2.40 a.m., and Daily Mirror says only “the early hours”. Ada Derana’s is the earliest filing of the four, and the higher casualty figure appears in every later report.

No outlet has named the suspect, said whether either victim’s injuries are serious, or reported what the dispute was about.

Update (September 5): suspect is 51, produced in court

The man arrested over the shooting is 51 years old and was due to be produced before court on Saturday, NewsFirst reported at 2.44 p.m.

That is the first age given for the suspect, and it sits alongside NewsFirst’s earlier detail that he is the son of a retired police officer. NewsFirst’s follow-up otherwise repeats the injured as a 30-year-old woman and a 42-year-old man, both admitted to the National Hospital — the figures three of the four original reports agreed on, and which Ada Derana’s early filing did not match.

Hiru News reported the arrest separately and said investigations had established that the shooting took place over a private dispute, consistent with the personal motive police described on Friday. Hiru placed the incident near an apartment complex on 6th Lane and did not give the suspect’s age.

Neither outlet names him, reports the court’s order, or says whether bail was granted or opposed. The nature of the dispute is still not described, and no update has been given on the condition of the two people who were hit.

Sources