DURBAN - A NOTORIOUS gang leader was among the five suspects who were killed in a shoot-out with police on Tuesday in Pietermaritzburg.
This was revealed by Police Minister Bheki Cele during a media briefing in Durban yesterday.
He applauded the police for the successful operation in Scottsville.
According to Cele, the group of suspects were involved in a lot of killings, not only in the city, but also within the province.
Cele said one of the suspects was a notorious gang leader and an awaiting trial prisoner who had been on the run since April after he and 44 other prisoners escaped from a police van en route to the Pietermaritzburg Magistrate’s Court.
Police spokesperson Colonel Thembeka Mbele said officers from the National Intervention Unit received information about the suspects who escaped and proceeded to Fairfield Road, Scottsville, where a vehicle was spotted entering a premises in the road.
Mbele said when the officers approached the gate of the premises, they were met with gunfire from different corners of the property. During the exchange of gunfire, five suspects and two women who were also at the premises were fatally wounded.
Cele said police were still trying to establish what the women were doing at the house and how they were linked to the suspects.
Four pistols, a rifle, shotgun and an AK47 and large quantities of expensive cigarettes were seized, said Mbele.
Two vehicles were recovered at the scene. One was reported stolen in Thornville and the other in Pietermaritzburg last month, said Mbele.
“Charges of attempted murder, possession of illegal firearms and ammunition and possession of suspected stolen property is being investigated,” she added.
Cele said the group were involved in house break-ins, rape and murders in the city.
“The gang leader was injured a week or two ago when he was going to murder some taxi people in Bergville. One of the group members was killed in Ntuzuma a few days back. They were moving around murdering people,” Cele said.
In April, he visited the capital city and announced that 50 more police officers had been deployed to combat crime in the area. This came after residents raised safety concerns following a series of murders and other crimes.
THE MERCURY