The Lagos State Commissioner of Police, Mr Fatai Owoseni, has ordered the arrest of a policeman who allegedly shot and killed one of Nigeria’s celebrated tennis superstars. The victim, Beauty Mc- Cleod, was said to have been shot by the policeman at a hotel named Emperor’s Place, during an altercation on Sunday.The tennis star was lodging at the hotel before her murder.

McCleod was rushed to the hospital, but died the following day. McCleod’s daughter, Angel, is also a top-rated junior tennis star. According to sources, the policeman, attached to the Moroko Police Station, had been arrested and detained on the orders of the commissioner.

The incident occurred at the hotel located on Balarabe Musa Street, Victoria Island, Lagos. A witness said the policeman, who was attached to the hotel as one of the security guards, shot the tennis star after a brief argument. A source said that the United Arab Emirates (UAE)- based tennis star was lodging at the hotel with her daughter, Angel, but met her untimely death in the hands of the trigger- happy policeman when she challenged the cop for refusing her guest entry into the hotel’s premises.

The source, close to the deceased, said: “Beauty returned from Ghana on Sunday where she took her daughter to a tennis academy. She invited one of her friends to pick her up for shopping at the hotel that same night but had reservations about the manner the police guard treated her guest. “She apparently challenged the policeman when she went back to her room to pick her wallet and according to the guest, who is also my friend; the policeman chased Beauty down the stairs and shot her on the leg.

The guest did not know what transpired between the two of them but saw the policeman open fire on the woman.” The deceased was rejected at a nearby hospital where she was rushed to for treatment but lost too much blood and gave up the ghost on Monday morning before she could be treated at Saint Nicholas Hospital, where she was finally admitted.

Confirming the incident, the state Police Public Relations Officer (PPRO), Mr Joe Offor, said the shooter is attached to Mountain Troop Police, not Moroko Police Division. He said: “The policeman shot a woman and she died. The policeman has been detained at Moroko Police Station.”

Explaining what the policeman told police authorities transpired between him and McCleod, Offor said: “We only have the policeman’s version, but the woman is dead. We can’t get to hear her side of the story. But investigations are ongoing and we have started talking to eye witnesses.

“The story we have, however, is that the policeman and the woman live in the same compound on Victoria Island. They had been having issues. They had another quarrel and the woman attempted to dispossess him of his gun. During the struggle, the gun exploded. The woman was hit. She later died.”

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