Durban - Empangeni policeman Niren Ramsaroop was promoted to warrant officer on Friday, only to be gunned down in broad daylight the next morning while trying to apprehend a robbery suspect in the town centre.
Ramsaroop, 40, who was born and raised in Glencoe, was shot in the chest and died at the scene. He had been a policeman for 21 years.
His mother, Nadeera Ramsaroop, wiped away tears as she praised her son’s heroism.
“No matter what happens, I know I cannot get my son back but I want justice to be served. My son never harmed anyone but helped people. He was an angel,” she wept.
The grieving mother said a policeman’s job was to serve and protect his country and while officers knew the risks involved with their jobs, drastic measures were needed to curb the escalating crime.
“Policemen and women are losing their lives in the fight against crime and I don’t want anyone else to go through what we are going through. Crime is getting worse and government needs to do something to tackle it!” she said.
According to police, the incident happened at around 10am.
Ramsaroop was on patrol in the town centre with colleagues, when three women approached them. They reported that they had been robbed of a bag containing R110 000 in cash by two men. The women claimed they had withdrawn stokvel money from a local bank and were accosted by the men shortly after leaving the building.
Ramsaroop spotted one of the alleged suspects and managed to grab hold of him.
The man pulled out a gun and shot Ramsaroop in the chest but he was able to return fire and shot the suspect in the leg.
The 41-year-old suspect was taken to hospital and remains under police guard. His firearm, a 7.65mm pistol, with its serial number erased, was recovered at the scene.
The second suspect escaped with a bag containing the cash. A manhunt is underway to find him.
KZN Police Commissioner, Lieutenant General Mmamonnye Ngobeni, said they would not rest until the second suspect was caught.
Nadeera, 57, said she last spoke to her son on Friday when he officially became a warrant officer. “Normally, when I call him when he is on duty, he asks me to call back. But on that day he was so excited about having signed the paperwork to officially become a warrant officer that we ended up talking over the phone for about 30 minutes.”
She continued: “While speaking, I told him Christmas was around the corner and he needed to look after himself because it was more dangerous around this time of the year. He told me not to worry…”
Around 11am the following day, one of Nadeera’s other sons told her that Ramsaroop had been shot dead.
Ramsaroop’s fiancée, Sharon Naidoo, whom he was planning to marry in June next year, described him as a man with a wonderful heart.
“We knew each other for 12 years and I fell in love with his personality. On that morning, a friend who works in town called and told me Niren was shot. I live nearby and was at the crime scene about five minutes later. The area was cordoned off and three female officers ran towards me and hugged me. When they placed me in the police car, I knew something bad had happened.
“They said Niren had been shot and was being taken to hospital. They ended up taking me home and broke the news to me that he had died.”
His younger brother, Yudhveer, said that while at ML Sultan Glencoe Secondary, Ramsaroop often spoke about becoming a policeman. “Our great-grandfather, Spider Ramsaroop, was a policeman in Glencoe and Niren wanted to follow in his footsteps. To us, my brother is our hero. Without thinking of his own safety, he helped the women who were robbed.”
The Post