Two Pretoria motorists disregarded their own safety when they gunned down an armed robber and critically injured his accomplice in a shootout north of the city.
The incident happened less than an hour after police, in a separate incident, arrested two hijackers following a high-speed chase and gun battle in Elardus Park.
Motorists Chris Jacka and Giel van Wyk were driving out of the parking lot at Kolonnade shopping centre when they spotted two men driving at high speed through the mall's car park.
Suspecting something was not right when they saw the men abandon their car and climb over a two-metre wall, they gave chase.
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| 'I just carried on until everything was over' |
The robbers had moments before attacked and robbed a Spar employee depositing money at Standard Bank in the shopping centre.
Spotting their pursuers, they ran into the rooms of Botes and Le Roux dentists, where they demanded car keys to a vehicle they wanted to use to escape in.
Fleeing from the dentists' rooms on the corner of Dr Van der Merwe Street and Doring Avenue, the men opened fire on Jacka as he blocked their escape, forcing him out of the car as they tried to hijack his vehicle.
Fearing they would kill Jacka, Van Wyk opened fire and shot dead one of the robbers.
Jacka, grabbing the dead man's gun, opened fire on his accomplice, critically injuring him.
| 'I dropped to the ground and screamed at Giel for help' |
A shaken Jacka said he was leaving the shopping centre when he saw a green Opel Corsa racing into oncoming traffic as the driver tried to drive out of the complex.
"I immediately thought something was wrong when the driver and passenger leapt out of the car and I decided to chase them.
"I did not know what I was going to do when I caught them, but I knew that I had to do something," he said.
Jacka, who is a paramedic, said he got the "fright of his life" when the two men came charging out of the dentists' rooms shooting and screaming at him.
"When they yelled at me to get out of my car I was only too happy to do so," he said.
He said "instinct kicked in" when one of the men climbed into his car.
"I dropped to the ground and screamed at Giel for help. As Giel shot, I jumped up and grabbed the dead man's gun and turned around and shot the other man as he tried to shoot me.
"I just carried on until everything was over," he said, before driving off in his bullet-ridden Hyundai.
Police, who cordoned off the scene from dozens of curious onlookers, could be seen comparing identity kits of several hijackers and armed robbers to the dead man, who is believed to be behind a spate of hijackings in Montana over the past two months.
Police confirmed that they were investigating the "strong" possibility that the two men were wanted for dozens of hijackings and armed robberies in Montana.
"One of the latest hijackings we believe these men are responsible for is last week's attack on a motorist in the driveway of his Braam Pretorius Street home," said a detective.
Police spokesperson Constable Brenda Kgafela said the robbers' getaway car had been stolen in Garsfontein earlier in the day.
She said an armed robbery, car theft and an inquest docket had been opened. Police had recovered the stolen money and two unlicensed firearms.
"The injured man has been taken to hospital where he is being held under police guard," she said.
Kgafela said the arrest of two hijackers in Elardus Park took place after a Brooklyn police patrol spotted them in an Audi A3 which was hijacked in Brooklyn last month.
She said police chased the hijackers through Moreleta Park until Elardus Park where the Audi driver crashed the vehicle on the corner of Barnard and Alandale streets.
"As the men jumped out of the car they opened fire on police before fleeing. One was arrested while getting into a taxi and the other was caught at a nearby shopping centre," she said. Two unlicensed handguns were seized.
The men will appear in the Pretoria magistrate's court on charges of armed robbery, possession of unlicensed firearms and stolen property, and attempted murder.
- This article was originally published on page 1 of Pretoria News on July 19, 2006
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