Gunfight cop saved by war vet

2003-04-03 09:19

Lizel Steenkamp

Johannesburg - A veteran from the Angolan war 20 years ago this week saved the life of a policeman badly wounded in a fierce gunbattle with 15 cash-in-transit robbers.

Captain Roelf Taljaard, 35, of Mondeor's crime intelligence unit collapsed behind his police car shortly after the 15 robbers started firing on him with AK-47 rifles and handguns.

Mark Thomas of Glenanda, south of Johannesburg, was driving behind the police car about 11:30 on Wednesday when he saw the shooting.

"They shot Roelf, but he kept on fighting bravely until he collapsed.

"He had a hole as big as my fist in his arm and also had been wounded in the chest.

"I tore off some of his clothes, made a pad and tried to stop the bleeding with it."

Thomas also bandaged the policeman's chest.

Thomas said: "He said it was the second time he had been shot. He mumbled all the time that he was trying to reach his wife, but she wasn't answering her cellphone."

Taljaard was admitted to Union Hospital in Alberton and is in a serious condition.

One of the robbers was shot dead

Police superintendent Chris Wilken said 15 men in four vehicles descended on a van carrying money.

A car, which had been stolen in Bramley last month, was used to ram the armoured van.

The robbers jumped out of their vehicles and started firing on the guards.

In the meantime, three Mondeor charge-office officials arrived on the other side of the truck.

A fierce gun battle raged during which Taljaard was seriously wounded, a robber was shot dead and a security guard was shot in the leg.

One of the suspects was cornered at a garage close to the gun battle. Wilken says an AK-47 rifle and a pistol were confiscated.

Within minutes, the police had pounced on three of the cars in which 13 of the robbers had fled.

A car hijacked at the gunfight was found abandoned 500m along the road and two other cars used - one of which was stolen in Krugersdorp in October last year - were later found in Kibler Park, south of Johannesburg.

It is not known how much money was stolen.

- Beeld