By Alfred Koroma
At about 2pm on Thursday, an artist known as Big Fish, unleashes chaos after he snatched a rifle from a female police officer deployed at the United Bank for Africa around Charlotte Street and went on firing rampage. He was later approached and shot dead by a military officer.
Before he was shot, eye witnesses said the late artist had earlier muttered that he was in the mood for killing shortly after he had snatched the gun from the officer at the Bank.
During Big Fish’s rapid firing, a trader known as Fatmata Douda was hit by the fragments of the rifle while trying to run out of her shop in to seek a safer place. The victimm has spoken to Concord Times, sharing what happened before she was rushed to hospital.
“I was inside when people started shouting: that man has a gun. That man has gun. There was chaos everywhere,” she recalled.
“I tried to move out of my shop to seek a safer place, when I heard a sound ‘gbom’ and people were shouting fire, fire, Fatmata explained. “Quickly after that sound, I felt like sand has entered my face. Then a boy told me – Aunty, blood is coming out of your face.”
Fatmata was rushed to Connaught Hospital and later referred to the Emergence Hospital. “There is a deep hole where I was hit, she said pointing at her shoulder plastered with a gauze sponges and a medical tape. On to the moments she was speaking to Concord Times, the victim said: “I still feel sand around my shoulder. That’s exactly how I feel.”
Big Fish who caused the trader’s injury was notorious for violent behavior. In a press statement put out after last week’s incident, Police described him as a ‘’notorious armed robber and violent thug.”
In September 2021, the late artist was suspiciously spotted at the State Avenue with a cutlass, shouting “Allahu Akbar.” Authorities asked him out of the avenue, but he refused, leading to his arrest.
Big Fish is reported to have lived in the United States of America for some time, but it is not clear, which circumstances brought him back to Sierra Leone. Sources say, he has been acting erratically and insanely since his return from the U.S.
