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Five suspects said to have assaulted a police officer who was performing his lawful duty in the Kumawu area of the Ashanti Region have been arrested.

The incident happened on Friday, April 7, 2023, Graphic Online understands.

At about 4:45 pm on Friday, a police patrol team led by General Corporal Sylvester Berhene and two other policemen intercepted a Kia taxi cab with registration number AS 9504 - 19.

There were seven persons on board the taxi cab,  according to the police situational report.

According to the police account, while Corporal Sylvester Berhene was conducting the search in the boot of the vehicle, some of the occupants became angry and pounced on him.

They reportedly struggled and put him down on the ground.

Fight over rat

However, other reports suggest that the fight with the police man was as a result of an attempt by the police officer to take the carcass of a rat from the young men.

The young men were reportedly returning from a hunt and had the carcass in the boot of the taxi.

They reportedly resisted the attempt by the police officer to take away their meat, resulting in the confrontation.

The police man is alleged to have fired a warning shot, which resulted in the youth pouncing on him in an attempt to prevent him from being able to fire more shots.

Reinforcement

The police surveillance team was contacted for reinforcement and when they arrived, the police managed to arrest three of the assailants namely Edward Boateng aged 20 years, Evans Addo aged 20 years and Yaw Kusi aged 22 years.

The others managed to escape but two of them were later arrested.

The two have been named as Michael Owusu and Boateng Yaw, age 28 and 20 years respectively.

They were apprehended by the surveillance team.

According to the police the officer who was assaulted sustained physical bodily injuries at his forehead and a dislocation of left knee.

All five suspects arrested are in police custody.

The police situation report seen by Graphic Online is however silent on the rat carcass and whether or not there was an attempt by the police officer to take it away from the youth.