Chiwenga speaks as Zimbabwe Brigadier-General family mourns son ‘KUPO’ shot dead in America
Acting President Dr Constantino Chiwenga has consoled the family of the late Brigadier-General Fakazi Mleya following the death of his son, Mr Khupo Mleya, who was gunned down by a 23-year old suspect, Karsen Henry Rezac, in the United States on Friday.
The Acting President worked with the late national hero Brigadier-General Mleya, who passed away in 2007, and yesterday joined mourners to console the Mleya family following the unfortunate shooting in Lincoln in Nebraska that claimed the life of the 38-year-old.
Mr Khupo Mleya aka Kupo is survived by a wife and a 12-year-old daughter.
The motive of the shooting is still unknown, but reports from the US say Lincoln Police have apprehended the gunman.
“I was saddened when I received the message of his death from (ZANU PF) Vice President Mohadi. He was a child whom I knew very well when he was growing up.
“It is barely two months since we last talked of him. I asked Vice President Mohadi and he told me they are out of the country and I told him that they should come back home.
“Now, we hear of this very sad incident. To the family, I want you to be strong in this difficult time and what we now need is to ensure his remains are brought back home for a decent burial,” said the Acting President.
The Mleya family spokesperson, Mr Gino Malapela, said: “Khupo was on his way back from work going home in the early hours of the morning.
“Unfortunately, his car was shot at several times, and then got involved in an accident.
“The first responders who visited the scene tried to revive him, but he had already passed away.” Sunday Mail
Suspect Karsen Henry Rezac arrested, Zimbabwean man shot at several times, and then got involved in an accident
Meanwhile in the US, Karsen Rezac was taken into custody less than two days after Mleya was found shot near 20th and Washington streets just after midnight Friday, the Lincoln Police Department said Saturday in a news release.
Officers responding to a report of shots fired in the area found Mleya outside his wrecked Jeep Patriot with multiple gunshot wounds at about 12:30 a.m., Police Chief Teresa Ewins said at a Friday news conference.
Police performed CPR on him until medics with Lincoln Fire and Rescue arrived and continued efforts. Mleya died at the scene.
In the news release, police offered no details on what led them to Rezac, who was taken to the Lancaster County Jail. He is set to make his initial court appearance Tuesday.
Mleya’s Jeep had been wrecked by the time police arrived on scene, but Ewins said investigators aren’t sure whether the crash came before or after the shooting. The scene is only a block from his residence, near 21st and Washington streets.
A native of Zimbabwe, Mleya emigrated to the U.S. to attend school. He married in Chadron in 2007 before moving to Lincoln by the 2010s. Mleya and his wife had a daughter in May 2011.
The couple separated in 2014 and later divorced.
Mleya had worked at the Lincoln bike shop Cycle Works and had also spent time as a groundskeeper at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln, where he was a student in the late 2010s, according to friends and public records.
He had also been a student at Southeast Community College. He had a passion for education, friends say — but not one that trumped his joy for motorcycles.
“It was funny, because he always told me, ‘Yeah, I spent all this time going to school. But I really just want to ride motorcycles,” said Collin Post, who worked alongside Mleya at both Cycle Works and Frontier Harley-Davidson, and who described him as his best friend.
Mleya loved his daughter and America, Post said, describing an instance at a motorcycle rally the two had attended where Mleya borrowed the U.S. flag from the rally’s campsite and strapped it to his bike before parading it around, grinning ear-to-ear.
More than anything, Post said, he would remember Mleya’s ability to connect with strangers as if they were friends, which Post attributed to his infectious laugh and smile.
“He had a way with people, man,” Post said. “He didn’t care who you were, what you were or what you valued or whatever. He just wanted to know everything about you.
