Commissioner Thembisile Patekile said they were looking for the gangsters who opened fire on 14 police officers performing their duties in Kleinvlei on Wednesday.
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Kleinvlei police officers were patrolling Ukraine and Essenhout streets in Forest Village around 8:45pm when they were attacked.
‘According to reports, unknown armed suspects opened fire on the police members while executing their duties. The members returned fire,’ said police spokesperson Wesley Twigg. ‘We can confirm that two private vehicles and three police vehicles were damaged during the shootout between the police and the suspects. No loss of life and no injuries were reported. Kleinvlei police are investigating attempted murder and attacks on police cases.’
Patekile strongly condemned the police attack.
‘Four of our vehicles were damaged, there were no injuries on any of the victims.
‘I’ve directed that those people must be found dead or alive, there is no way that we are going to tolerate gangsters shooting at the police like there’s nothing. Those people were doing their job there.
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‘We are going to be asking the municipality for proper lighting, the reason they couldn’t do anything was because of the darkness and they couldn’t see where the people came from, but we’ve deployed our specialised team like TRT there to find those people, dead or alive.
‘There’s no way we allow them to attack the state and then we don’t respond appropriately.’
Meanwhile, speaking to IOL, Police Oversight and Community Safety MEC Reagen Allen described the incident as disappointing.
‘We have always been clear; any attack on SAPS members or law enforcement officers is an attack on the state and those particular perpetrators should be dealt with harshly.
‘I agree with the provincial commissioner that those particular perpetrators must be found so that they can be brought before court and ultimately pay for their sins.
‘The fact that they were brazen enough to attack the police speaks to the fact that criminals to a large extent have gotten away with crime, because despite the number of arrests, we see a small amount leading to convictions.
‘When we look at the criminal justice system, it is failing us and this is the direct result that we are seeing now in our communities. These criminals are so brazen because they know that nothing will happen to them.’
Anyone with information about this shooting incident is encouraged to contact Crime Stop at 08600 10111. Information may be shared anonymously.
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Picture: Maurice Pehle/Unsplash
