Cop killed, another injured in shooting outside Cape Town tavern

A policeman has been killed and another is in hospital in a critical condition after they were shot outside a tavern in Cape Town.

National police spokesperson Brigadier Vishnu Naidoo said a warrant officer, 52, and constable, 29, from the Mfuleni police station had been on patrol at about 10pm on Sunday when they were shot by someone they confronted in Diepwater, Wesbank.

“The warrant officer was shot in the head and succumbed to his wound an hour later in hospital, while the constable who was shot in the neck is in hospital in a critical condition,” Naidoo said.

The senior officer had 32 years of service in the police force.

National police commissioner General Khehla John Sitole ordered that the South African Police Service’s 72-hour activation plan be initiated, with Crime Intelligence, forensics, detectives as well as the Hawks mobilised, to find and arrest the perpetrator.

The officers were gunned down on the same day an off-duty police officer was stabbed to death in what appeared to be a robbery in Kleinvlei, a few kilometres from Wesbank.

The 28-year-old constable, who was stationed at Delft police station, and a friend had left a shop in the early hours of the morning when two people stabbed him.

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