By E. J. Nathaniel Daygbor
A criminal justice expert has classified the recent killing of a man identified as Matthew Mulbah in the Congo Town neighborhood of Monrovia by officers of the Liberia National Police as an act of murder.
Police Inspector General Gregory Coleman told the nation on the night of October 8 that his officers gun down a suspect in a knife stabbing incident, who posed threat to batch of police reinforcement.
It would later emerged that the police was called to help a distressed family get a relative suffering from an apparent mental health issues to a medical facility.
Police IG Coleman defended the killing of man as an act of self-defense.
But in a phone interview with the Oracle News Daily, the expert – a Liberian based in the United Kingdom who requested anonymity said that when a suspect turns their back and attempts to flee, they are no longer a threat.
“At that point, the individual is defenseless and harmless. The police have no legal justification to use lethal force,” the expert said.
He explained that even in extreme situations—such as when a suspect attacks an officer but later attempts to flee out of fear of arrest—the appropriate response should involve minimal force.
“In such cases, officers may fire warning shots into the air, deploy rubber bullets, or aim for the suspect’s leg. But discharging six rounds of live ammunition is excessive and unjustifiable,” he said.
Since the end of Liberia’s civil war in 2003, the country’s criminal justice system has undergone significant reforms. With support from international partners including the United Nations Mission in Liberia (UNMIL) and the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS), the government has worked to rebuild law enforcement institutions and restore the rule of law. A key component of these reforms has been improving police professionalism through training in defensive tactics and the lawful use of force.
“Despite millions spent on training, it is troubling to witness officers who remain undisciplined, reckless, and deadly in their operations,” the expert lamented.
He further stated that the appropriate response in the Mulbah case should have been the use of Intermediate (Less-Lethal) Force—tools and techniques designed to temporarily incapacitate a suspect without causing permanent harm. “This level of force bridges the gap between physical control and lethal action,” he explained.
“It is deeply disheartening and painful to witness police officers forcibly breaking into the victim’s residence, only to shoot him six times in the back as he attempted to flee,” the expert said. “Such actions are terrifying and demand immediate accountability for the officers and their commanding officer.”
The brutal nature of the incident—especially the dragging of the victim’s body through a pool of blood—could have incited community unrest, he said.
