Durban -
There was pandemonium at the Point police station in Durban on Monday when a man entered the charge office, grabbed an officer’s firearm and began firing as other policemen struggled to disarm him.
He had returned to the station after being sent packing earlier when he requested a lift.
A bullet grazed the head of a police captain and two colleagues suffered minor injuries as they fought with the assailant, who was subdued and arrested after being shot in both arms.
KwaZulu-Natal police spokesman, Captain Thulani Zwane, said a 25-year-old man had gone to the station’s Community Service Centre at about 11am and disarmed a policeman who was busy attending to someone in the charge office.
A police source who witnessed the incident told the Daily News that the suspect walked into the police station and started speaking to police members casually over the counter.
“Then he asked for a lift to uMlazi from the police officers. A police officer told him ‘this is a police station not a taxi rank’,” said the source.
He said the suspect left and then returned while the charge office was busy.
“He went around the counter while a policeman was busy taking a statement from a crime victim.
“He then pushed the police officer forward and pulled the firearm from his side holster. He then put a gun to the officer’s head and pulled the trigger,” he said.
“Fortunately the gun was not on. He then cocked the gun and another policeman saw him and tried to disarm him.”
As civilians and some police ducked for cover, other officers wrestled with the man trying to get to the firearm, but the suspect began shooting.
“And the other cops behind the counter shot him in retaliation,” the source said.
He said the suspect was neatly dressed and was not known to the woman officer who was shot.
An off-duty police officer who did not want to be named, who was inside the station during the shooting, said it was the “scariest” and most unexpected incident.
“I just ran out after the first gunshot. It all happened quickly and when I saw people running out I realised that I do not want to see what is going to happen as I might get shot.”
A bystander said he had just got out of his car to hand in documents at the station.
“Because I had left my documents in my car, I went out to get them. As I was walking back to the entrance I heard gunshots and people screaming as they ran out of the station,” he said. “Police were already redirecting traffic to the other way and blocked the road.”
Several people who were inside the police station were taken to hospital to be treated for either injuries or trauma.
“She (the shot police officer) was taken to hospital for treatment and the suspect was wounded on both arms and taken to hospital under police guard,” Zwane said.
“The suspect will be charged for attempted murder and will appear in the Durban Magistrate’s Court after he is discharged from hospital.
Zwane said police did not know the motive for the attack. He also could not say whether the suspect was mentally disturbed.
Curious residents from surrounding flats watched some of the drama from their windows while passersby stood in shock in front of the condoned-off station entrance.
The suspect was still inside the station when the Daily News arrived. He was seen being taken out on a stretcher with both arms in bandages and his clothes covered in blood.
He was in handcuffs.
The suspect lifted his head when police and paramedics shouted at people taking photos as he was being lifted into the ambulance.
The station was closed as crime scene experts carried out their work.
Rescue Care Paramedics spokesman, Garrith Jamieson, said they transported three police officers and a suspect to the nearby Addington Hospital.
“There were no visible gunshots on the officers, but one had a wound which might have been from the gunshot and others had injuries they sustained while wrestling with the suspect over the firearm,” Jamieson said.
- Daily News