Rosettenville – A resident who lives in The Hills, close to the house two dozen alleged criminals used as a safe house, said the shootout that occurred was something “out of a movie”.
The safe house is said to be located close to the St Martin’s school.
It is believed at least twenty-five heavily armed men were on their way to execute a cash-in -transit (CIT) heist when police intercepted them. At least eight suspects were killed during the shootout while ten arrests have been made so far. The rest are believed to have escaped.
Of the ten arrested, five were identified as Zimbabwean, one as Tswana and four are from KwaZulu-Natal. It has since emerged two of the arrested suspects are police officers. According to the Independent Police Investigative Directorate’s (IPID) spokesperson, the suspect from Botswana is a wanted criminal and an alleged mastermind of CIT robberies in South Africa. The identities of those killed have not yet been confirmed.
A Rosettenville resident described the chaos like “it was something out of a movie scene”. Multiple shots were fired between the alleged robbers and police. Another resident described the ordeal in frightening detail likening it to living in a “war zone”. The first shots were fired and then began to escalate for a long time.
“Around 3:30pm I heard a few shots, what sounded like a handgun, so I was alarmed as it was in broad daylight. I thought it would stop there as a minor incident.”
They believed it was something minor as gunshots are heard from time to time in the area but when the shooting continued, their panic grew.
“At first, I wasn’t feeling too worried, only to hear a few seconds later what sounded like assault rifles being shot and then it got worse from there and kept on going for an hour at the same rate. It really was like a war zone. That’s when we started feeling anxious and felt we had to hide not knowing if there would be bullets flying through the walls as some of the criminals hid in people’s yards.”
They family who spoke to Salaamedia felt unsafe in their own home and warned a family member who lives with them “not to come home.”
“We heard the helicopter first and then a few minutes later heard a plane circling around the house so we checked through the security gate to see that it said Police on the wing and that’s what made it even more scary as we were realizing this is a high-profile incident. At the same time gunshots were still being fired.”
Living close to the shootout meant they could hear everything that went on and there was an added fear one of the suspects could jump in their yard and use it for cover.
The emergency WhatsApp group for the area advised residents to stay inside and lock all entryways. Spotting the police plane filled them with a sense of calm and fear they described.
“To be honest, I think I felt safer [when I saw the police airplane] but more frightened at the same time. It was scary and reassuring at the same time because it sounded like there was every police station attending to the crime scene, we could hear the police cars just kept on coming and coming.”
The presence of many police officers, “out in full force” and the police sirens as well as seeing the plane were clues, they said, the police were involved in a high-profile case, and it was dangerous.
Once the shooting stopped, they did not feel completely safe and were up late consuming information about the shootout from social media.
“When the shooting stopped, I felt slightly safer, but we didn’t feel safe until late this morning. We weren’t really alerted that things were clear because they had told us that roads got cordoned off and were trying to gather info late into the night.”
The area’s safety has deteriorated with many reports of hijackings and drug dealing taking place. Residents say they have not felt safe for some time and this incident makes them even more fearful.
One police officer sustained fatal injuries and five are recovering from critical injuries in hospital. Fifteen police officers from different units were involved in the shootout and are traumatised by the shootout explained the IPID.
