Policeman gunned down outside his Durban home

A police officer was shot and killed in front of his Durban home on Sunday.

According to national police spokesperson Brigadier Vishnu Naidoo, the warrant officer was leaving his residence in Alfawood, Woodview for work at the Phoenix police station when a white Toyota Etios stopped in front of him.

An unidentified man got out of the car, walked up to the warrant officer and shot him several times. The policeman managed to return fire, killing the man, before succumbing to his injuries.

The other suspect/s that were in the Etios then sped away. The motive for the attack has not yet been established.

Acting national police commissioner, Lieutenant General Fannie Masemola, has called for a widespread search for the suspects.

“I have been assured that a 72-hour activation plan has been mobilised and the all the necessary resources have been deployed to track down the remaining suspects,” said Masemola.

“We, the police management, have made a clarion call to all our police officers never to fall with a gun in their hands. Our colleague fought a brave fight on Sunday but sadly he lost his life, but not without ensuring that his assailant went down too,” said Masemola.

Naidoo appealed to anyone who has information about the shooting to contact the police on the Crime Stop number 08600 10111, or via the SAPS’s My SAPS app.

Callers will remain anonymous and all information will be treated with strict confidence.

According to Lieutenant General Christine Mgwenya, 29 police officers were killed in the line of duty during the 2017/2018 financial year. However, that number is lower than the 56 killed while off duty over the same period.

Data going back to 2012/13 indicates that off-duty unnatural deaths far outnumber the deaths of police officers while on duty, according to a SAPS briefing to Parliament in 2015.

In that briefing, SAPS said that most police members killed on duty are attached to the Visible Policing unit as first responders and are responding in terms of typical policing functions such as arrests, searches, and complaint response.

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