George Maina, a city landlord, was among the seven suspects gunned down by DCI officers at a godown in Industrial area, Nairobi on Sunday night.
Maina and his team were shot dead during a botched robbery in which they attempted to steal cooking gas cylinders from the godown.
According to Police, Maina owned a lorry and a total of 50 mabati houses at the city's Mukuru kwa Njenga slums.
The DCI officers who were part of the Sunday night operation reported that on arrival, they found Maina manning the godown’s entrance while the rest stormed in to conduct the robbery.
They added that Maina, who was alleged to be the gang's ringleader, had a pistol on him during the incident.
The officers also disclosed that the 32-year-old was a known criminal and had been in their watch list for quite some time.
The suspects had stormed the Softa godown and held two guards hostage before they began loading stolen gas cylinders onto a lorry.
It is also reported that the suspects had also attempted to hijack another truck that was ferrying empty gas cylinders into the facility.
Luckily, police officers were quick to respond when an alarm went off, gunning down the seven suspects on the spot as they tried to escape.
They also managed to arrest five others who are currently in custody aiding investigations.
The incident is reported to have the largest number of suspects killed by police this year in a single incident.
