Immigration Officer Testifies to Finding Stabbing Suspect Wounded in Locked Bureau Toilet

The late Fatoumatta Kargbo and Arona Tine, the man charged with her murder

An immigration officer testified on Tuesday that she felt compelled by a “duty to protect life” when she learned of a stabbing at a currency exchange bureau in Westfield, describing how police later found the accused man bleeding inside a locked toilet.

The officer, Musukuta Jatta, appeared as the prosecution’s seventh witness before Justice Jaiteh in the murder trial of Arona Tine, who is accused of fatally stabbing Fatoumatta Kargbo, an employee of HM Bureau de Change.

Ms. Jatta told the court that on the 19th of last month, she had been standing near Alivehag Supermarket in Westfield, waiting for transportation home, when a visibly distressed man wearing a haftan rushed toward her seeking help.

“I initially told him I was an immigration officer and not a police officer,” Ms. Jatta testified. But, she said, after hearing that a young woman had been stabbed at the bureau and that the assailant had turned the weapon on himself, she decided to intervene.

Invoking what she described as her obligation to safeguard lives, Ms. Jatta said she immediately telephoned Superintendent Lamin B. Sarr to report the incident.

By the time Superintendent Sarr and other officers arrived, she testified, Ms. Kargbo had already been transported to Westfield Clinic. The suspect remained inside the bureau.

According to Ms. Jatta, officers entered the premises and discovered that Mr. Tine had locked himself inside a toilet. “Superintendent Sarr and the team managed to break the door,” she said. “They found him wounded on the neck with blood oozing out. He was immediately rushed to the hospital.”

Ms. Jatta also told the court she saw a green-handled knife at the scene, consistent with earlier police testimony describing a weapon recovered near the suspect.

Under cross-examination, defense counsel S. Ade sought to underscore that Ms. Jatta had not witnessed the stabbing itself.

“You didn’t witness the incident of the stabbing?” Mr. Ade asked.

“Yes, I didn’t,” she replied.

Mr. Ade further suggested that her account of the attack was based on information relayed by another person. Ms. Jatta responded that she did not know whether the man who approached her had himself witnessed the stabbing, only that he informed her of it.

She acknowledged that while she observed injuries on Mr. Tine’s neck and saw the knife on the floor, she could not say how the wounds were sustained or who had originally possessed the weapon.

The trial was adjourned until March 3, 2026, when a medical doctor who conducted the postmortem examination is expected to testify.

The case, stemming from what prosecutors have described as a daylight attack in the busy Westfield area, has drawn sustained public attention as proceedings continue.