NYAGATARE - Twenty-seven year old James Kayumba, a student at Umutara Polytechnic University, was shot dead Friday by a local defence guard in Barija, Nyagatare sector.

Dr. Eugene Ndabaga, Umutara vice-rector, explained that Kayumba who was in his third year of a business degree, died on his way to King Faisal Hospital in Kigali.

"After receiving the news that one of our students was shot at around 10:00 pm, we rushed to the scene and picked him and took him to Nyagatare Hospital. Doctors worked on him but he was bleeding profusely, so we decided to take him to Kigali,” Ndabaga said yesterday. "He died on his way to Kigali at around 2 a.m.”

The student was shot on his way back to school after a Liberation Day ceremony in Barija cell. Kayumba was with two students from the School of Finance and Banking (SFB) who were visiting him.

"According to these students, they were returning from Barija when they met a person who was driving carelessly.

He almost knocked them and they decided to follow him and see where he was heading and report him to the police,” said Ndabaga.

"On the way they met someone and had an argument with him, the man fled towards Rwanda Development Organisation (RDO) offices where a member of the local defense was guarding.

When they followed him there, the guard shot twice in the air and the students took off. As they were running he shot Kayumba in the back”, Ndabaga narrated.

According to the District Police Commander (DPC), Superintendent Emmanuel Kalasi, the students were under the influence of alcohol when they met the man on the road.

"They began fighting with the man and he ran to the RDO offices,” said the superintendent in a telephone interview yesterday.

"The local defence guard was afraid and acted in self defense,” said Kalasi.

By the time we went to press, the two students were detained together with the guard. Ndabaga said that the university was preparing to take the body to Kayonza for burial.

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