Last Sunday (July 31), I visited Ndirande township and the home of Frank and Christina Semu. Ten days earlier, their 13-year-old grandson, John Mora, was killed by a gunshot to the head.

As things stand now, all evidence points to the stray bullet from the weapon of a Malawi police officer. But nobody from the authorities has come around to investigate.

Worse than that, because Mora was one of 19 Malawians killed during two days of national unrest that began on July 20, the president has labeled the young boy a common thug.

At the aging couple’s simple home in Ndirande, Mrs Semu sat on the floor quietly, often glancing across the room to the spot where her grandson slept each night. Her eyes teared as her husband recounted searching hospitals and mortuaries for any word of Mora’s fate. Two days into his search, Mr Semu found his grandson with what he is certain was a bullet wound.

“The whole area of his face, it was badly damaged,” Mr Semu sighed. He expressed outrage at President Bingu wa Mutharika’s broad characterization of the civilians who were killed by state security forces last month.

“The government has called our son a thief,” Mr Semu protested. “But he was a good boy who went to church and Sunday school. You can go there and ask them; he was a good boy. So when the president says that he was killed because he was a thief, that takes something from us. That is taking something from our family.”

Mr Semu maintains he holds no ill will towards the demonstrators. He and his wife agreed that the protesters were speaking on their behalf. “They were telling the president about the problems that people like us have,” he explained.

Mrs Semu interjected. “We are just saddened because we lost our child this child could have grown up to be a responsible citizen,” she said. “He could have taken care of us when we are old. But now he is gone.”

More photos at my Flickr stream.

Portions of this post were first published at Al jazeera English on August 1, 2011. Continue to that story: “The search for justice after Malawi killings”.