Governor Lolo Matalasi Moliga says the Department of Public Safety is conducting a thorough investigation into the shooting that injured a police officer early Sunday morning, after he confirmed that a police officer was injured during a shooting incident, but declined to comment on the extent of the officer’s injuries.

Governor Lolo told Samoa News that every resource DPS has available has been called into service for the investigation of the injured officer. He told Samoa News that DPS would provide a statement to the public tomorrow regarding the incident, which occurred in Leone.

While, Samoa News has not heard of any eyewitnesses stepping forward, there have been unconfirmed reports of the incident on Facebook pages of local residents, and talk by some of hearing “six rifle or shotgun shots followed by a rapid burst of pistol shots” in the early morning hours on Sunday.

The shooting has the police very tight lipped about the incident; so much so that even the Emergency Medical Services was not contacted for assistance, said an EMS official.

Police officers, who are not authorized to talk to the media, told Samoa News that the incident happened in Leone, during the early morning hours on Sunday, and this time two police officers and a captain of the Leone Substation, in a police vehicle were the targets.

The officer told Samoa News that a police vehicle was heading down to Leone, and there was a vehicle trying to get on the road, so the police vehicle stopped and to give way.

“That’s when someone from the vehicle shot at the police vehicle” shattering the window where one of the officers was sitting — injuring him. 

Samoa News was told that the injured officer was hurt by a gun, and the shells that were found inside the police vehicle are from a shotgun.

Samoa News notes that these are unconfirmed reports, and Acting Commissioner of Public Safety Vaimaga Maiava declined to comment on the incident, or speak about the condition of the police officer that was injured due to the shooting.

Samoa News witnessed the heavy presence of police officers outside the hospital yesterday morning. As of yesterday afternoon the injured officer had undergone an operation, where according to police officers, the physicians were removing glass that seemed to have gone into his face and hands as a result of the shattered window from the shooting.

Governor Lolo was seen yesterday at the hospital visiting the injured officer before the officer was taken into the operating room for surgery.

Police officers are showing support with posts on Facebook, asking people to pray for a fellow officer who was injured in the line of duty.

This is the second shooting incident involving police officers from the Leone Substation. In November shots rang out after midnight at the substation as a drive-by shooter fired at the front of the building.

The two police officers and the one dispatcher who were inside the station at the time were not injured.

Police officers, also not authorized to speak to the media, were shaken, and told Samoa News that when the first shot took place, the dispatcher was in one of the rooms where the bullet came right through the window. There were four bullet holes in the front part of the station, and police have recovered all the bullets that were found inside different offices. According to people in the area, the vehicle was coming from the east heading west when the shooters opened fire at the police station.