2 US Volunteers Arrested For Alleged Murder In Wa

Two Peace Corps volunteers have been arrested by the police for allegedly stabbing one Najas Illiasu, alias Ninja to death in the Wa municipality.

According to the police, the two volunteers, Andrew Kristler and Rachel Riccardi, allegedly stabbed illiasu after he and an unidentified accomplice had attempted to rob them a few metres from their residence. The volunteers were returning from a drinking bar around the Wa Methodist School for the Blind to their residence at Dobile in Wa in the early hours of Saturday when the incident occurred. They were said to have been surrounded by Illiasu and his accomplice, now at large, in an attempt to rob them. In the ensuring confusion, Kristler drew out a jack knife and allegedly stabbed illiasu. Illiasu was later found dead some few metres away from the residence of the volunteers.

According to the police, Illiasu, who had earlier wielded a machete, had instructed Kristler and Riccardi to surrender their personal effects or be butchered. He had further instructed his accomplice to conduct a search on the two, but one of them managed to overpower the accomplice and refused to surrender. That the police said, infuriated Illiasu who allegedly went ahead to open a cut on Kristler’s finger and shoulder.

They said the other unarmed assailant went behind Riccardi and started dragging her away on the ground, while she screamed for help, but to no avail. That culminated in a struggle compelling Kristler, who was holding a jack knife, to stab illiasu in his left rib. Illiasu, upon noticing the severe nature of the opposition, took to his heels but fell a few meters away from the crime scene.

He was later found dead within the vicinity with blood all over his body. When contacted, the upper West Regional Police Commander, DCOP Kofi Danso Addae Acheampong said some passers-by had alerted the police to the dead body. He said the body of the deceased had been deposited at the Wa Regional hospital morgue, pending further investigations.