What could have made a 53-year-old police officer, armed with two rifles to lock up himself inside a room in the barracks, and shun colleagues’ pleas not to harm himself?
This is the riddle that superiors are now saddled with following the horrendous spectacle at the Zambia Police Service Headquarters in Lusaka.
There, Assistant Superintendent Daniel Banda of the Ballistics Unit, reportedly locked himself inside his office on Monday, September 14, while armed with an AK-47 rifle and a pistol.
According to Police Assistant Public Relations Officer, Timothy Malumo the incident began at about 17:00 hours after Banda locked himself in his office and threatened to take his own life.
He shunned colleague’s pleas to open up the office, and the next they could hear was the blast of a gun.
In a statement issued on Tuesday, Malumo said Banda discharged the pistol and shot himself in the head at approximately 20:45 hours.
“The Zambia Police Service in Lusaka recorded an incident of a sudden and unnatural death which occurred on 14th September 2026, at around 20:45hrs at Police Service Headquarters,” Malumo said.
He identified the deceased as Banda, aged 53, an Assistant Superintendent attached to the Ballistics Unit.
Police said Banda had been in possession of both an AK-47 rifle and a pistol when he locked himself inside the office.
His body was later taken to the University Teaching Hospital mortuary, where it is being held pending a postmortem examination.
Police have since opened investigations into the circumstances surrounding the incident.
Authorities said further details would be released as investigations progress.
However the opposition is refusing to buy official accounts regarding the death of the policeman, with the Spokesman of Tonse-Pamodzi, the main opposition political coalition, Emmanuel Mwamba demanding an independent and transparent investigation
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Mwamba holds that the account of the circumstances of his death, remain extremely worrying.
He said that the police was attempting to portray a suspected killing as a suicide as Banda may have died during interrogation rather than by his own hand, and that.
He stated that the late Banda was the officer expected to sign off on an exchange of fire and the discovery of a weapons cache during a military raid on the residence of the presidential candidate of the National Reconciliation Party for Unity and Prosperity (NRPUP), Brian Mundubile.
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