KAMPALA: Uganda Police has started investigations into circumstances under which a man was shot death whereas others took off after a private security guard intervened in an attempted robbery at Rubaga Cathedral.

According to the deputy Kampala Metropolitan Police spokesperson, Luke Owoyesigyire, the incident happened on Wednesday night when four unknown assailants attacked the guard at Rubaga Cathedral armed with machetes and sticks.

“Because the security guard at the cathedral uses only batons and not guns, the thugs used this opportunity to pounce on him. In the process, he made an alarm that attracted armed security guards at nearby buildings,” Owoyesigyire told this website.

It is said the armed security guard intervened and shot dead one of the attackers whereas the others took off after sensing danger in an incident that happened at around 3 am.

Police says the thugs wanted to rob offertories that had been contributed during the celebrity mass held at the cathedral during the day.

Past incidents

Last month, the chaplaincy of St Augustine at Makerere University released video footage showing a man stealing offertory and church equipment.

According to Fr. Josephat Ddungu, the chaplain of St. Augustine Church, the unidentified thug broke into the chapel on the night of August 12 and made off with an unspecified sum of money, laptop, extension cables, boxes where the offertory for Mother Mary and Radio Maria are kept among other things.

In 2014, thugs broke into a church in Malaba before stealing an unspecified amount of money collected as offertory and church property.

The thugs who broke into the church through the back door of Malaba Catholic Church before taking off also took with them the entire public address system, wine, rosaries and Bibles but only left the priests’ vestments.

The following morning, when the parish priest came to prepare for the 7 am mass, he was astonished to find that everything had been turned upside down in an attempt to look for valuables by the robbers.