Police kept vigil as doctors treated ‘suspect’ colleague

When Flying Squad police officer Ali Nura was taken to the Aga Khan Hospital, staff thought he was one of the terrorists injured in the attack yet he was shot after saving more than 100 lives at Westgate.

It was a tough decision for the doctors and nurse—whether to first save the life of the patient or raise an alarm. The patient, in the next few minutes, blacked out after losing a lot of blood from the four bullets.

The constable, who works in Nairobi, recalls.In a rare gesture of humanity, doctors rushed him to the operating theatre as others called the Anti-Terrorism Police Unit (ATPU) to come to the hospital for the “suspect.“

The police arrived on time to witness the operation. Today, Ali is thankful to the Aga Khan Hospital staff for making the bold decision to save his life.

Ali had abandoned a cup of tea at his home, carried his pistol and an assault AK47 rifle to rush to the besieged mall for a rescue operation. He arrived to the welcome of bullets flying right, left and centre.

„We saved dozens. I was shot as I lied down to drag an injured woman who was lying on the floor,“ he recalls.

Ali decided to abandon his secure position for the open line fire to save the woman. „The first bullet entered through my lower abdomen and went through the right side, popping my intestines out of the body,“ he remembers how close he came to death.

When one of the terrorists saw that he was still alive despite being shot at several times, he emerged from an enclosed area with his gun pointed at the injured officer. Cornered, Ali, who was bleeding profusely at a venerable position where he could not take cover, says he felt his chances of survival were over.

„When I saw him approach, the first thing that came into my mind was the regret of dying without seeing my children. Then, I felt so miserable that with the bullets lodged in me, the mission of saving more lives was over,“ he says.

Fortunately, photographer Goran Tomasevic, who has taken photographs of war zones, spotted him and pulled him out of danger in the nick of time.