Mbombela reaction officer misses death by centimetres
Two AG Solutions reaction officers were ambushed by alleged hijackers while they were tracking a bakkie that had been hijacked from the Barberton area. One of the officers was shot in the knee.
With over 35% of his blood lost, the doctors thought local AG Solutions reaction officer Ethiene Lourens might lose his right leg following a recent shoot-out with alleged hijackers in Barberton. Doctors had said the bullet missed his femoral artery by one or two centimetres, and that a direct hit would have meant death.
Now, almost a month later, Lourens is back at home with his wife, Clarise, but it will take several months to walk properly and a full year until he is able to run again. Lourens and his partner, Callen Herbst, were ambushed by alleged hijackers armed with long rifles (R1s and R5s) when they were tracking a bakkie that had been hijacked from the Barberton area on June 13.
Herbst told Lowvelder that following the call-out to the hijacking, the duo had begun tracking the vehicle, which led them to a dirt road in a plantation just outside Barberton. When they did not find the bakkie where the coordinates had indicated, the pair spotted tyre tracks and decided to follow them about 8km down a narrow dirt road until they came across a freshly chopped tree blocking the road.
Herbst was able to direct Lourens around the tree, and after driving a little farther, they found the hijacked vehicle. According to the duo, the bakkie had already been completely stripped and there was no one in the area.
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“We got back onto the road to get to an area that had cellphone reception so we could call the police, when we came across the tree again,” Herbst said.
It was starting to get dark and the pair decided to try and move it so the police could get through. As the two were fixing rope to the back of their vehicle to move the tree, a sudden burst of gunfire ripped through the air around them.
“They just started firing all of a sudden, and we could hear three different guns being used, all long rifles, from different directions.” Herbst said he immediately dived down into the bush and began firing back.
“As soon as I heard the first shot, I hit the ground. I heard the second shot and that bullet hit my knee,” said Lourens.
“I did not feel any pain at all. I just remember holding my leg and looking down and seeing blood everywhere.”
He said the pair fired back and in a lull in the gunfire exchange, he attempted to stand up and move to the bush where Herbst was taking cover.
“As I stood, I felt two of the ligaments in my knee snap,” Lourens said.
“I told Callen that I was going to jump and that he should grab me. As I jumped, I felt all the ligaments tear. We leopard-crawled through bush in the dark for 2km to try get to safety,” he said.
Herbst said the pair could not see any of the suspects and were running low on ammunition. After crawling 2km through bush, and with a bullet wound to Lourens’ knee, the pair saw cellphone lights.
“We stayed down and didn’t know if it was the suspects looking for us or not. All of a sudden, we heard footsteps nearing us, but they were not coming from the people who were on their phones,” said Herbst.
Lourens said he suspected that the footsteps near them were from the alleged hijackers themselves, ready to finish the two reaction officers off.
“We knew we were outnumbered and I started making peace with the fact that this might be it for us. But then, it got quiet and almost as soon as I had made my peace, I realised I was actually not ready to go,” he said.
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“That was when a security van showed up, by the grace of God, and we were saved.”
A case of attempted murder was opened at the Nelspruit Police Station and has since been transferred to Barberton’s. Herbst added that a case of hijacking had been opened at the Barberton Police Station as well. Lourens said he was treated at Mediclinic Nelspruit by “the best doctor in the business”, Dr Johan van Rooyen.
“He told me it did not look good and it is by the grace of God that I survived.”
He added that the damage to his knee had been extensive and it was described by the doctor as if someone had taken a 2kg hammer and smashed it on his knee.
“He had a complex injury to his femur with massive muscle damage and degloving wounds where the bullet exited,” said Van Rooyen.
He said there is still more work to be done on the leg and that his patient would need a skin graft at some stage. Lourens said he had received feedback from the police on his case and that the matter was still being investigated.
