Johannesburg - In yet another police shooting, two officers were shot and wounded near Mayfair early on Monday morning.
Joburg Central police spokesman Warrant Officer Thomas De Bruyn said the officers were shot after pulling over a suspicious vehicle with five or six occupants at about 1am.
“When police approached the vehicle they just started shooting. A female police officer was shot in the neck and the shoulder but she is in a stable condition... and a second officer was also shot and critically wounded,” he said.
Details were still vague and police were still in the process of investigating.
Only one of the occupants was arrested - a woman who got out of the vehicle prior to the shooting.
“She was unable to get back into the car when it fled,” said De Bruyn.
This is the second shooting to take place in Joburg since last week.
Last Monday, a Joburg metro police officer was shot and wounded in the head after pulling over a vehicle during a routine speed check.
JMPD spokeswoman Edna Mamonyane said on Monday morning that the officer was still in an induced coma.
Gareth Newham, head of the governance, crime and justice division at the Institute for Security Studies, said there were a lot more gangs and criminals using firearms, which put officers of the law at an even higher risk of being shot.
“They shoot at police when they're pulled over because they don't want to be caught. If they’re caught carrying an illegal firearm, they can face 15 years in jail,” Newham said.
He said police must investigate each police shooting individually to see if there's a pattern or lesson to be learnt.
“Police need to have dedicated intelligence and investigation units going after these gangs because they are extremely organised.”
He said police should follow tactics taught when approaching a suspicious vehicle.
Last month, a police constable and three suspected robbers were killed in an early-morning shoot-out on the N4 route between Mpumalanga and Gauteng.
Also last month, a Tshwane metro police officer was shot and critically wounded during an operation at a settlement in Pretoria.
Metro police spokesman Senior Superintendent Isaac Mahamba said the incident happened after officers responded to a complaint about criminal activities taking place at a settlement in Hercules.
Last year 82 police officers were killed in the line duty. At the time, spokesman for the police ministry Musa Zondi said one police officer served at least 340 people in this country.
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The Star