A shootout ensued when Maboneng cops cornered two men believed to have robbed metro police officers.
|||Johannesburg - There was a shootout in Maboneng, central Joburg, on Saturday night when police officers cornered two men believed to have robbed metro police officers, arrested one and chased the other and shot him dead.
The arrest and shooting were the culmination of events that started on Friday night when the Joburg metro police department (JMPD) officers were robbed of their work pistols.
The officers, a man and a woman, had responded to an accident scene at the corners of Anderson and Berea streets in Jeppestown around 9pm.
There, they found that a taxi and a minibus had collided. The taxi’s 10 passengers had got out and were milling around.
JMPD spokesman Wayne Minnaar said while the officers were busy investigating the scene, three men materialised in the dark.
“They approached the officers from the back and the officers did not see them. As soon as the passengers saw the three men take out guns, they scattered, fleeing the scene.
“The armed men then told the officers to lie down and they took their guns. The attackers then disappeared among the nearby shacks.”
Warrant Officer Richard Munyai of the Jeppestown police said that around 11pm on Saturday, police received information that two of the three suspects had been spotted at a tavern in Maboneng.
“They arrested one at the scene and found a gun on him believed to belong to one of the officers. The other suspect fled and police ran after him. They cornered him at the corner of Anderson and Marshall streets in Jeppestown.
“He shot at the police and the police shot back. They shot him in the neck, abdomen and head and he died at the scene,” Munyai said.
Police also seized a gun from the dead man. Minnaar confirmed that both the firearms seized were the ones that had been stolen from the officers.
He said criminals were taking a huge chance by attacking police because other officers would respond and look for them, and that it could have dire consequences such as in this instance, where the suspect was shot dead.
“When officers respond to incidents, they will have to be extra cautious now and be alive to the possibility that there will be people trying to rob them of their guns,” he said.
Incidents of people being attacked while out helping civilians have been on the increase lately. Last month, six paramedics who were attending to a man who had been stabbed in Jeppestown were robbed by two gunmen who took their wallets, cellphones and a two-way radio.
In February, paramedics were forced to grab the patient they were treating and run for their lives when five armed men ambushed them in Hurst Hill, Joburg. One paramedic was at the back of the ambulance, busy treating a patient, while the other was in front when a gunman pointed a gun at the paramedic in the front and demanded his cellphone. When the other paramedic heard the commotion, he grabbed the patient and they fled and flagged down a taxi.
In January, a gunman held paramedics at gunpoint in Tembisa and hijacked an ambulance. However, he crashed the ambulance into a nearby house and fled the scene.
botho.molosankwe@inl.co.za
The Star