Jaison Muvevi who is facing multiple murder charges has been cleared of six charges following ballistic tests.
He was being investigated for killing up to 10 people.
Muvevi, a former police detective, was in the news following a January shooting spree in Hwedza in which three people died and two more narrowly escaped death.
He was arrested in Mozambique.
Muvevi was also linked to another suspected murder that took place in November 2022 in Eastlea, Harare.
Police were eager to find out if he had any connection to the six previous unsolved murder cases that had occurred in Harare and Chitungwiza since 2020.
Muvevi’s suspected murder weapon was taken for ballistic tests about a month ago to try to link the forensic evidence to these six cold cases.
However, it has emerged that the ballistic tests did not match Muvevi’s murder weapon in the six cases.
National police spokesperson, Assistant Commissioner Paul Nyathi, confirmed that Muvevi had been cleared of six murder charges. He said:
I can confirm that on Muvevi’s charges, he remains facing four counts of murder and two counts of attempted murder.
A police source close to the investigations told The Sunday Mail the results from the forensic ballistic analysis did not match Muvevi’s weapon. Added the source:
So, automatically he was cleared of the six suspected murder cases.
The situation is still the same in terms of his other charges. So, he is still facing four counts of murder and two counts of attempted murder.
Muvevi was detained in custody until March 6 after appearing before Harare magistrate Mr Dennis Mangosi on Monday for routine remand.