Metro cop shoots hijacker
2008-05-22 08:18
Johannesburg - A Johannesburg metro police officer, in his early 30s, shot and killed an alleged hijacker in Dube in Soweto, Johannesburg metro police said on Wednesday.
Superintendent Wayne Minnaar said a Sowetan man and his wife, both in their 40s, were held at gunpoint by three men in Dube at 17:00 on Wednesday.
The men climbed into the couple's Toyota Corolla.
The hijackers discovered the couple's Toyota Corolla was low on fuel and instructed the driver to fill his tank at a garage in Mahalifele Street.
The driver, standing outside the car at the garage, spotted a metro police officer near the garage and shouted for help.
The wife jumped out as the three men fled in the hijacked Toyota. The metro officer gave chase and called for back up.
At the Dube hostels the men got out of the car and a shootout ensued.
Only one of the men, in his 30s, was armed with a firearm. The officer shot the man who then died on scene.
The other two men managed to flee.
A case of armed robbery was being investigated and the two men were being sought for being accomplices in the armed robbery, said Minnaar.
- SAPA