Monrovia — Twelfth-year-old Adullah Kabbah, an 8th grade Student of the Garden of Prayer School in Jamaica Road, Montserrado County District #15, is nursing his wound in hospital after he was hit by a live bullet, reportedly fired by operation officers of the Liberia Drugs Enforcement Agency (LDEA).
The LDEA's Operation Team discharged live bullets on Thursday, May 30, 2024, while on an arrest alert in the community following tipoff about the arrival of the consignment of drugs, particularly "Kush" brought there by a suspected drug dealer.
According to eyewitnesses, the LDEA officers discharged the live bullet after some alleged drug suspects were escaping arrest.
"We were sitting here, and later, we saw the car coming with a group of LDEA Officers in a pickup. Later, we saw some men running from this house with bags on their backs. The DEA chased and didn't catch any. After a while, the place got crowded with zogoes (drugs-addicted youths), and that's how they discharged the live bullet, after firing in the air for some time", eyewitnesses narrate.
However, speaking in an exclusive interview with the NEWDAWN on Sunday, June 2, 2024, Little Kabbah said that he encountered an unfortunate situation when he and his classmates were leaving the Better World Football field for their school campus.
According to him, the school administration of his school had Thursday and Friday as gala days, during which time they were given the opportunity to leave the school fence to play football games at the back of the field.
"While we were leaving the field, we heard that the DEA went to arrest a man, who they said was sealing drugs. The man ran away. Some disadvantaged youth came around, and the LDEA officers fired two times in the air, but the group was many, so he fired the gun straight, and that's how it skipped the wall and hit me on my thighs", the minor explained.
He further indicated that after the LDEA operation team discovered that their colleagues' live bullet discharge had hit him, they jumped in their vehicle and wanted to run away but were resisted by community residents.
"After the man fired me, they jumped in the car and left me in pain and blood and wanted to run away. However, the woman stood before the car and said it is not going nowhere until they can take me to the hospital for treatment", Little Kabbah added.
He lamented that while the LDEA officers and the community dwellers were arguing, a lady from the group called her friend, an Army personnel, who came to the scene and demanded that they take the victim to the hospital.
The lad continued that, based on the pressure from the AFL soldier, an ambulance came and took him to Redemption Hospital on Bushroad Island but later transferred him to the John F. Kennedy Memorial Hospital in Sinkor, Monrovia.
"At JFK, they treated me and said that I was lucky because the bullet didn't enter my bone. However, it just passed in the flesh and came outside. Also, the doctor said that I was also safe because the bullet hit something before reaching me, something which made it cool", he stated.
Little Kabbah told this paper that he is walking well now but still feels pain in his thigh. However, he said doctors have assured him that with regular treatment, it will get better.
An uncle of Little Kabbah, Mr. Banglee Kromah, accused the Liberia Drugs Enforcement Agency of showing less attention to his nephew.
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According to Mr. Kromah, since they took the boy at the hospital, the LDEA team has never visited the family neither the child to know his condition.
"Since we took this boy to the hospital, the LDEA team has not come to us nor to check on the little boy about his health and stability. But it's good. Let them continue; it's only God that will pay them. We are just happy that the boy didn't get crippled or died because it could have been a different thing", a rather irritated Kromah concluded.
State security of discharging live bullets in crowd is prevalent in Liberia, with a recent incident involving armed riot officers of the Liberia National Police firing into unarmed demonstrators at the operating site of Bea Mountain Company, a mining firm in Bomi County, Western Liberia, killing several persons.
The Liberia National Police has investigated the officers and turned them over to the Police Professional Standards Division.
