Cop shot dead in Joburg mall

File photo

File photo

Published Jul 28, 2015

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Johannesburg - Shoppers screamed and ran for cover when robbers opened fire in Rosettenville Junction shopping centre, killing a Joburg metro cop.

A woman was so distraught that she fainted when she saw three men holding guns on the first floor on Monday afternoon, a witnesses said.

Moments later, Simon Mabatamela was lying in a pool of blood at the entrance to the Pick n Pay. He was in police uniform.

“He was on his way from work to his home in Thokoza. He used Kliprivier Road to get home, so he stopped at the mall to go to Pick n Pay or something,” said Joburg metro police department spokeswoman Edna Mamonyane.

When the 59-year-old went up the staircase to the first floor, he came across three men holding up G4 security cash guards at gunpoint opposite the entrance to the supermarket.

The gunmen demanded he hand over his service pistol, but he refused.

A scuffle broke out between Mabatamela and one of the gunmen who had ordered him to surrender his gun.

The robber then shot him twice – once in the head and once in the leg.

Paramedics tried for about an hour to resuscitate Mabatamela before he was declared dead, Mamonyane said.

A witness said Mabatamela had told the robbers that if they left him alone, he would walk away. “But they kept pushing him around, demanding that he give them his gun,” the woman said.

After shooting Mabatamela, the gang fled with a cash box and the guard’s gun. They did not take Mabatamela’s firearm.

Some of his colleagues who were at the scene of the crime were visibly shaken.

In disbelief they walked around the body, covered in silver foil.

One of the officers said he was with Mabatamela less than an hour before he was killed.

Two other women said the officer regularly stopped at the mall to buy groceries after work.

“We know him, he was very friendly. Every week he comes around here,” said one of them.

Mabatamela was married with two children.

“He was the quietest and sweetest officer. He was so loved by his colleagues,” said Mamonyane.

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The Star

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