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The body of a man killed by robbers lies outside Builders Warehouse in Sunninghill. Photo: Chris Collingridge
A Builders Warehouse customer was shot dead on Wednesday morning as he arrived at the Sunninghill depot just as four robbers were fleeing.
Police helicopters were still circling Rivonia earlier on Wednesday as they hunted for the four suspects.
The men are believed to have fled empty-handed after trying to loot the store’s safe.
The robbery happened soon after the store was opened at 6am by employees and security guards.
As they unlocked the doors and entered the building, they were approached by one of the assailants, who, dressed as a security guard, had followed them into the building.
The armed robber took one of the employees hostage, and three other armed men entered the building.
One of the men forced a sales manager to the room that housed the safe.
However, the manager didn’t have access to the code to unlock the safe.
The robber then started beating and pistol-whipping him in an effort to extract the information, without success.
In the meantime, the robber had been joined by three accomplices.
Unable to open the safe, they fled from the building.
They encountered two customers, who arrived in separate vehicles.
One of them, a man in a white bakkie, was attacked by the robbers. They shot and killed him.
Police believe they wanted to hijack him for an escape vehicle.
The robbers did not take his bakkie, instead fleeing on foot.
A passing motorist who witnessed the incident from the cab of a large truck called in to Talk Radio 702 to tell presenter John Robbie what he had seen.
The man, who identified himself only as “Claremont”, said he had stopped at the traffic light outside Builders Warehouse when he heard a popping sound coming from that direction.
“I saw a white guy in shorts running away from the whole commotion and he fell down.
“Shortly afterwards I saw two guys, one holding a gun, running towards a white bakkie.
“They tried to open the door. I was scared and motorists behind me started hooting (because the robot had turned green). Because I drive a pick-up truck, which is higher than their cars, they were not aware of what was happening.
“I just froze as those two guys came towards the intersection. They jumped the fence, walked away. They looked very calm.
“I was scared that the obvious thing was that they would look for a getaway car, and my car was right there.”
Robbie put the traumatised Claremont through to a producer for help in getting counselling.
According to Sandton police spokeswoman Captain Kym Cloete, the Builders Warehouse store had been thoroughly searched to make sure there were no other robbers hiding on the property.
The manager who was beaten during the incident was able to give his statement to police and appeared not to require medical attention.
By 8.30am, the body of the man killed still lay in the parking lot, his left arm outstretched and his face concealed by a multicoloured umbrella.
Dozens of employees gathered outside as they waited for the crime scene to be cleared while investigators continued collecting evidence. - The Star
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Anonymous, wrote
Badballie. I'd love to hear where you get your stats from...in my 17 yrs as a police officer and 16yrs of being directly involved in the recovery of unlicensed firearms, I can confirm that only one out of about 50 was linked to the police or military. Nationally, you would be shocked at the number of firearms stolen on a daily basis during standard housebreakings. Most are taken from within a safe when the entire safe is stolen, but a large number are still stolen that we're not locked away through negligent gun owners. I fully agree with you on the topic of the anti-gun organizations needing to back off and the governments strategy at disarming an almost already defenceless population.
Nombie, wrote
This is so emotional may his soul rest in peace ,the b*stards must die in prison,I could not hold tears condolences to the family
badballie, wrote
Over 70% of all illegal firearms are stolen from the police and the military, remember that the police cannot currently account for all their weapons and investigations have shown that no proper checks and balances are in place in respect of police station gun control. Of the remaining 30% close on 10% are illegally brought over the border or form part of found ANC weapons caches. Remembering that to date the ANC still cannot account for over 40 tons of arms and ammunition smuggled into the country. Even then, the remaining thefts from civilians are in most cases incidents where the gun owner is killed or tortured with a very small percentage being stolen without physical violence. Its high time South Africans started to do proper firearm training and adopted the polices "shoot to kill" policy as well as presenting a massive collective face against gun free organisations which are partially behind the ANC's attempts to disarm the civilian population.
Anonymous, wrote
Ana, what kind of a silly question is that??? Guns are stolen in house robberies, guns are 'lost' by police officials and end up in the hands of the scum that did this,do you not readlisten to the news?
Ana, wrote
Where the hell do people get guns? I think we should start dealing with those people selling guns. This is getting out of hand.
Carol-Ann Brand, wrote
Oh South Africa, this has to STOP! To shoot and kill someone for no reason and without a care. "They seemed so calm". what a dreadful indictment of our society. How callous. I am so sorry for this man's family. RIP.
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