Johannesburg - Two suspects were killed and another wounded in a shootout when police foiled a suspected business robbery in the Crown Mines area on Tuesday.
Gauteng police spokesperson Captain Kay Makhubele said the incident happened around 2pm when police spotted the suspects’ in a grey Nissan X-Trail traveling from Crown Mines direction towards Xavier Road in Ormonde.
He said the suspects failed to stop when the police instructed them to do so, leading to a high-speed chase and an eventual shootout during which police returned fire.
“The suspect's vehicle was intercepted at Lakewood Estate in Ormonde and the suspects alighted from the vehicle, ran off and continued firing shots at the police,” Makhubele added
Makhubele said police caught up with the suspects, two of whom succumbed to their injuries, while the third suspect was taken into police custody.
He said the police recovered five unlicensed firearms, three rifles and two hand guns and ammunitions.
Makhubele added that their vehicle they were were traveling in was stolen in Johannesburg in August. A police hand-radio and other items believed to have been used in the commission of the planned armed robbery, were also recovered.
Makhubele said no police officer was injured during the shootout.
Gauteng's provincial police commissioner Lieutenant General Elias Mawela said an urgent investigation would be conducted to establish the suspects possible links with their unlicensed firearms to other serious and violent crimes.
It is also believed that the three suspects could be behind the recent spate of robberies where Chinese business people were targeted and other people robbed along the M2 highway and the Crown Mines vicinity.
Mawela has also extended a word of appreciation to the integrated team made up of a multi-disciplinary SAPS deployment, the DPCI (Hawks), both the Johannesburg and Ekurhuleni Metro Police Departments, Gauteng Traffic Police, Private Security and Tracker for working together.