The man who grabbed a gun from a traffic cop and used it to shoot him dead in Kisumu two weeks ago has finally been identified by the Directorate of Criminal Investigations (DCI).

The man, whose remains have been lying uncollected at a Kisumu morgue, has been identified as 25-year-old Ambrose Odero Owino, who was born in Siaya County in 1996.

According to DCI, Odero was the son of Joseph Owino Omollo and Catherine Akoth Omondi who are separated, with his mother who lives in Siaya describing him as a bright young man.

The late suspect went to Sengere Secondary School in Siaya and sat his O-Level exams in 2016, attained a mean grade of B- and emerged 7th best candidate in the school.

Odero, who was killed by a mob, after snatching the gun from a traffic cop on duty, opened fire indiscriminately after and killed two other people on the spot and injuring many others.

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His mother and relatives identified his body on Wednesday following an appeal by police, with detectives from DCI’s Crime Research and Intelligence Bureau leading investigations.

It emerged that Odero never applied for a national ID card after he relocated to Kisumu City to look for a job when his parents failed to raise fees for him to join Maseno University.

In Kisumu, he was employed at Foam Mattresses, a job secured through the help of his aunt, but he secured the position using a forged ID belonging to a Friedrick Oduor Odera.

However, his employment was cut short at the end of 2019 after every worker was asked to produce their original ID cards, in an exercise led by the National Employment Authority.

He was dismissed after he failed to show up to work knowing he had no ID card.

Detectives managed to obtain a copy of his dismissal letter from Jokali Handling Services, a human resource solutions company, which Foam Mattresses had contracted for HR services.

In his dismissal letter dated February 2, 2020, written by, Jokali’s Operations Manager Dennis Ambeva, he was sacked for failing to produce his personal documents as ordered.

“Your disappearance qualifies you to an employee who has deserted his work,” read part of the letter.

Detectives are trying to piece together Odero’s engagements from February 2020, when he was dismissed, to the day he staged the daring Kisumu shooting that left two people dead.

They are, especially, interested in where he acquired the weapon handling skills.