Pretoria : 21 June 2015 – Today at approximately 17:15 two armed robbery suspects were shot
and killed and a third was wounded following a shoutout with police in Haaroff Street in Pretoria Moot.
In a joint intelligence driven operation comprising of members from National Crime Intelligence, the National Investigation Unit (NINU), Directorate for Priority Crimes Investigation (Hawks), Gauteng K9 and Tracker, the team responded to intelligence of an armed robbery that was to be committed in the Pretoria Moot area involving a blue BMW.
The team split up into different groups and began patrolling the area. One of the groups spotted the BMW fitting the description outside the victim’s house where the robbery was already taking place. The entire team was summoned and when they tried to arrest the suspects the shoot-out ensued. Two male suspects where shot and killed and the third was wounded and removed to hospital. Police recovered a .38 special revolver and a pistol which was being used by the robbers.
None of our police officers were injured. The suspects will be profiled and the recovered weapons will be sent for ballistic testing to determine if they were involved in and used in other crimes respectively.
It was later established that the 43 year old woman, who is the occupant of the house in Haaroff Street, picked up her two Angolan visitors from O R Tambo Airport and returned home with them. As she
drove into the driveway the men confronted them and demanded jewelry and their bags.
Incidents of this nature where victims are being followed from the airport and robbed at their respective destination has started to become a growing challenge for the police. The incident tonight is indicative of the tireless work that our police officers have been doing to curb this problem.
We are hopeful that other such potential robbers would be mindful of both our intelligence capacity and reaction team and refrain from such criminality.
It also emerged later that the BMW which was used by the robbers was taken in an armed robbery earlier this month in the Boschkop area.
