A Gauteng Highway Patrol officer who was responding to a call of a stolen motor vehicle was shot dead along Jubilee Road just after 08:00 on July 23.
According to police, a shootout ensued between officers and the suspect, which resulted in one of the officers from Gauteng Highway Patrol being fatally wounded.
When the Advertiser arrived on scene at around 08:30 the mood was sombre, as other police officers battled to hold back the tears for their slain colleague.
The body of the officer lay on the road next to the police vehicle, while a white Golf, which was allegedly hijacked earlier in the morning, was a few metres away.
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Showing respect to one of their own, officers kneeled and prayed on scene.
Second crime scene
While at the scene, the Advertiser learnt of another active crime scene in Dalpark, Brakpan, which was linked to the one in Boksburg.
Police raided a house in Rangeview Road, Dalpark, after discovering the suspect who had allegedly shot the police officer had fled from this house before the chase ensued and ended tragically for the police officer in Jubilee Road.
According to the SAPS acting provincial commissioner Maj-Gen Tommy Mthombeni, through the collaborative work of the Hawks, the trio task team and private security companies received information about a group of men who were planning to carry out various robberies in Gauteng.
“When the police arrived at the Brakpan house in the early hours of the morning of July 23, the suspects tried to evade arrest. However, police arrested 19 suspects while two others were shot dead,” he said.
Police recovered three R5 rifles, four AK-47s, two pistols and two explosive charges and nine vehicles, of which four were identified as hijacked or stolen.
Mthombeni said one of the suspects reportedly hijacked a woman in her Golf 5 while fleeing from police (the white Golf on the Boksburg scene).
The police gave chase and the suspects was cornered along Jubilee Road. The suspects face various charges, including the possession of illegal firearms and stolen vehicles.
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