The United States has asked authorities in Zimbabwe for a complete accounting of events that led police there to shoot and kill a US citizen, the US State Department said on Friday.
Zimbabwean police have given the US embassy in Harare a ”short preliminary” report into the death of 58-year-old Richard Gilman but Washington still has concerns and wants more information, said Susan Pittman, a US department representative.
”We have requested from the government of Zimbabwe a more thorough and detailed police report which we have not yet received,” she said.
Zimbabwe did allow embassy staff to visit the scene of the shooting near the eastern border town of Mutare and inspect the car Gilman was driving when he was killed, Pittman said.
Gilman was shot and killed on Sunday after attempting to run a roadblock outside Mutare, according to the Zimbabwean government daily The Herald.
Gilman stopped at the checkpoint, but then stepped on the accelerator when police asked him to explain why some of the paperwork for his South African-licensed car was no longer valid, according to the paper.
The Herald said one police officer then fired two shots one of which struck Gilman, a university lecturer with a temporary South African residence permit. He died in a Mutare hospital a few hours later, it said.
On Tuesday, the US State Department demanded a complete investigation and said Washington had expressed concerns about the incident to officials in Zimbabwe. – Sapa-AFP