Cape Town - A police officer is recovering in hospital after being shot near his home following the night shift at Lentegeur police station.
The incident happened in Khayelitsha at 6.10am on Tuesday.
Police spokesman Captain FC van Wyk confirmed that the officer was stationed at Lentegeur police station.
“The motive for the incident is unknown and no one has been arrested as yet. The circumstances are under investigation,” Van Wyk said.
An attempted murder case has been opened.
A source said the officer was shot “multiple times” and that the hospital where he was operated on had brought in extra security to protect him.
He was in the intensive care unit, with gunshot wounds to his upper body, the source said.
The source said it was alleged that the officer had been shot by someone known to him. Police declined to comment on these allegations.
Tuesday’s shooting comes close on the heels of an incident in Klapmuts on April 16 when Warrant Officer Steven Britz, 44, was shot dead in the police station’s charge office.
Luvuyo Ndevu, 30, a policeman who had worked with Britz at Klapmuts, and Anele Pantsi, 33, have been charged with murder. Two alleged accomplices, Khayelethu Walker and Mlinde Maliso were also arrested. The four have appeared in court and have applied for bail.
A series of attacks on police in the Western Cape last year sent shockwaves through police ranks.
Three police officers were killed in a week in Cape Town last July: a sergeant, 34, was shot dead by two gunmen in his Montclair home, a constable, 36, was killed while on duty in Mitchells Plain and a sergeant, 40, was shot in his Khayelitsha home while getting ready for work. He died on the way to hospital.
At the time, former police minister Nathi Mthethwa said the Western Cape had the highest number of attacks on police officers.
The police’s annual national report for 2011/ 2012 showed that seven police officers died on duty in the Western Cape, 21 in Gauteng, 16 in KwaZulu-Natal and 15 in the Eastern Cape in that period.
Cape Argus