What was expected to be a blissful Easter Monday for the people of Kumawu in the Ashanti Region turned tragic when a middle-aged man, Kwabena Anane, allegedly gunned down a 19-year-old student for flirting with his (Anane’s) step-daughter.

The deceased, Desmond Asihene, aka Yaw Boateng, a third-year student of the Dadease Agricultural Senior High School (SHS), near Asante Effiduase, was shot at close range and died instantly.

The tragedy happened when Desmond Asihene was accompanying his girlfriend, who is a student of the Tweneboa Kodua SHS at Kumawu, to her house at dawn yesterday after she had passed the night in her boyfriend’s home. “We found bloodstains under the right breast of the deceased,” the Kumawu District Police Commander, ASP Emmanuel Dadekor, told the Daily Graphic yesterday.

The district commander said the remains of Desmond Asihene had been deposited at the Komfo Anokye Teaching Hospital morgue for autopsy, while investigations continued.

As of press time yesterday the police in Kumawu were holding the suspect, who is a popular beer bar operator in the town. However, ASP Dadekor said his outfit was planning to send Anane to either Effiduase or Kumasi for “security reasons” as some enraged youth of the town had attempted to lynch Anane in retaliation for the dastardly act.

Some of the people suspected that Anane was having an illicit affair with his step-daughter, otherwise he would not have taken that extreme line of action. Anane, according to ASP Dadekor, claimed Desmond Asihene and another person had gone to his house to steal.

He said the suspect alleged that when he attempted to drive the alleged thieves away, one of them fired a gun and he (suspect) who was also wielding a gun, returned fire, killing Desmond in the process. “What he (suspect) said are allegations, and against the fact that there are other allegations relating to the step-daughter, we are conducting further investigations to get to the bottom of the matter,” he said.

According to a resident of the town, Desmond Asihene had befriended the female student for some time now and all attempts by Anane to break up the relationship by persistently warning him to back off proved futile.

The source said the girl passed the night with Desmond Asihene in his house last Sunday and he was seeing her off to her house when he met his untimely death. According to the source, when Desmond Asihene got to his girlfriend’s house where she lived with her stepfather, the suspect opened fire on him, killing him instantly.