Mombasa County Commander Robert Kitur says police officers acting on intelligence information raided their house where the suspect was killed while his accomplice managed to escape.
“We had some intelligence information that there are criminals and part of them is a group terrorising people here in Mombasa. We believe they were two but we only found one and we are looking for the other one who escaped,” Kitur told journalists.
A hand grenade was recovered from the house.
Kitur says the two are known terror suspects linked to the murder of two tourists in Mombasa.
According to police the main suspect who escaped is believed to have jointed Al Shabaab terror group in Somalia and returned to plot attacks in the country.
However family members have denied claims of the two being involved in terror acts saying they were innocent youths.
The deceased uncle Farid Mohammed condemned the act terming it as extrajudicial killing of their own whom he maintained had no criminal records as alleged by police.
“This person is a businessman. Then we are suddenly told that he is a terrorist and he has been killed. We are very shocked. If they were suspecting him, they should have arrested him and not killed him,” Mohammed lamented.
“Now these are the acts that scare us here and we are worried that they will now start harassing us,” Mohammed said.
But Kitur said deceased Idris Mohammed was shot dead after he tried to attack the police.