Air Force Head Accused Of Firing At Police Truck

The former head of the Zimbabwean army’s 5th Brigade, accused of massacring thousands of suspected government opponents in the 1980s, has been arrested for shooting at a police truck.

Attorney General Patrick Chinamasa said Saturday that Air Marshal Perrence Shiri - now commander of Zimbabwe’s air force - will be prosecuted for shooting at the tires of a police truck because he was angry at the driver.

Shiri, an army brigadier at the height of unrest following independence in 1980, was to be charged with malicious injury to property, interfering with a motor vehicle and discharging a firearm in a public place.

If convicted, Shiri faces maximum fines of about $1,000, but little probability of a jail sentence.

Chinamasa said Shiri chased the police truck and shot at its tires on Jan. 21 after it failed to stop and help him fix a broken-down car by a roadside north of Harare.