Sri Lankan police sergeant shoots himself dead with service weapon

ECONOMYNEXT – A sergeant attached to the Tangalle police station, in Sri Lanka’s deep south, took his own life on Friday with a service weapon outside the Tangalle Deputy Inspector General (DIG)’s office, police said.

The sergeant had been on duty covering for a police officer who had had to attend to a personal matter. The victim had been provided a firearm and other equipment related to surveillance duties.

He had shot himself with the same gun, police said.

The victim was a resident of Weeraketiya, Hambantota.

Tangalle police is investigating the incident.

“We are unaware of what happened. We’re currently waiting for the postmortem results,” the Tangalle police officer in charge (OIC) said Friday afternoon. (Colombo/Jun17/2022)