Johannesburg - A Johannesburg police constable was shot and killed and three suspects wounded during a shoot-out in Jeppestown on Friday, Gauteng police said.
“A police officer was shot and wounded and died on his way to the hospital. Five suspects, three wounded, have been arrested, and an AK47 and four 9mm pistols were found on a minibus abandoned at the scene during a shoot-out at Karl Street, Jeppestown,” spokesman Lt-Col Lungelo Dlamini said.
Dlamini said the police officers were on their routine sector patrols when they responded to information of a suspicious vehicle. He said when the police arrived on the scene where the vehicle was and occupied by a group of men, a shoot-out ensued.
“A police officer was shot and wounded on the lower body and his R5 rifle was taken. He died on his way to the hospital. His colleague who also fired at the suspects was not injured. A police van was damaged on the windscreen,” he said.
“The suspects fled into different directions leaving the driver of the vehicle behind who was arrested at the scene. It is believed that some of the suspects were shot and wounded. Three of the wounded suspects were arrested on a nearby building where they were hiding,” Dlamini said.
Dlamini said a manhunt for a group of about three or four men was launched.
Earlier on Friday, police spokesman Major Mack Mngomezulu confirmed that two police officers were shot and wounded in Jeppestown. Mngomezulu was at the scene at the time.
“Police are still on the scene but I can confirm that two officers were shot,” he said at the time. Mngomezulu could not confirm that police chased armed robbery suspects from Melville.
Gauteng Provincial Commissioner Lieutenant General Lesetja Mothiba on Friday afternoon expressed concern at the killing of police officers. He called upon communities to rally around the police in their effort to deal effectively with “heartless criminals”.
Mothiba said that police were being attacked by “highly armed gangs” and said any information that may lead to the recovery of these firearms in the hands of the criminals would be rewarded.
The deceased was the fourth law enforcement officer killed this week. Two men are expected to appear in court on Friday, in connection with the murder of a Directorate For Priority Crimes Investigation (Hawks) officer in Cape Town.
Spokesman Brigadier Hangwani Mulaudzi said the suspects, aged 23 and 24, were taken in for questioning on Wednesday in connection with the death of 50-year-old Warrant officer Petrus Johannes Holz.
Holz, who was attached to the Hawks’ Commercial Crime Unit, was driving to work on Wednesday when his car apparently hit a man-made debris on the Cape Town’s N2 highway. Stopping to inspect the vehicle, he was then attacked and stabbed, allegedly by two men. He later died due to his injuries.
On Thursday morning, a Gauteng police officer and a suspected business robber were shot and killed in Temba, outside Pretoria.
The police constable was shot and wounded when he attended to a complaint of a business robbery at around 2.30am. He was taken to hospital but later died from the gunshot wounds, the SA Police Service said on social media website Twitter.
“Police responded to the incident and fatally wounded one suspect. A suspect in possession of a firearm fled and is still at large. More details will follow,” the police posted on social media.
On Monday, a Johannesburg metro police officer was shot and killed during an armed robbery at a mall in Rosettenville, Gauteng. Johannesburg metro police spokesman Senior Superintendent Wayne Minnaar said on Tuesday that the 60-year-old officer was shot dead just before 3pm when he walked into a robbery at Central Mall. He said the officer was going into a Pick n Pay when he saw suspects robbing security guards of a cash box.
“He started wrestling with one of the suspects and then he got shot by another suspect who came out from behind a pillar. When he fell he was shot again twice in the upper body. He sadly died on the scene,” said Minnaar. He said the suspects fled with the cash box but red dye came from the box as it exploded and he said the money they fled with would be covered in red dye.
ANA