A crowd of bystanders interfered with Metro Police officers in the execution of their duties, resulting in a suspect getting away, but four of his defenders ending up behind bars.
According to the City, on Friday, 21 May, officers pulled over a white Toyota Quantum after the driver disobeyed a red robot, but he sped off instead, causing two accidents along the way, and eventually abandoned the vehicle at the Nyanga taxi rank, where he fled further on foot.
A crowd at the taxi rank hurled stones at the officers, and some also fired live rounds at them. Members of the Metro Police Tactical Response Unit discharged rubber rounds to disperse the crowd. Two Metro Police officers were injured and four suspects arrested on a number of charges.
The City’s mayoral committee Member for Safety and Security, Alderman JP Smith, said this situation could have had fatal consequences.
“It’s an unfortunate reality that more and more people feel they can simply insert themselves into situations that have nothing to do with them, and in the process they help suspects get away to potentially commit more offences down the line, but they also put our staff’s lives at risk as well as their own,” he said.
He added it was even more puzzling how, in the face of ongoing complaints about public safety and incidents of crime, anyone can target or obstruct officers in the execution of their duties. “We condemn these brazen acts of lawlessness, and I sincerely hope that the courts will send out a strong message that this type of behaviour cannot and should not be tolerated,” he said.
The City said the suspects were among 316 arrests made by the City’s enforcement agencies in the last week. Officers also recorded 81 568 transgressions.
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