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4 in brazen escape from court
06/05/2008 10:06 - (SA)
Kim Snyders, Beeld
Johannesburg - A scene straight from an action movie played off in Johannesburg Magistrate's Court on Monday when four suspected murderers and bank robbers escaped from the court cells and through a court room.
The men, who managed to undo their leg irons after overpowering two police officers in the court cells, stormed out of the cells and ran through the full court room.
The police caught one of the suspects later in the court.
The suspects were apparently part of a gang that was responsible for the death of two police officers in Standerton, Mpumalanga, and about 33 bank robberies in Mpumalanga and Gauteng.
The charges against them were murder, escape, armed robbery and possession of unlicensed firearms.
According to a witness who was in the court, the men ran from the cells when the state prosecutor called their case.
"I just saw one of the suspects storming towards the investigating officer (who was sitting near the state prosecutor)," she said.
Heavily cuffed
"We ourselves then ran from the court. Thank God they didn't have weapons. Who knows what would've happened?"
One of the court officials described the incident as "like something from Rambo or James Bond".
One of the suspects hit the investigating officer over the head with the copper cuffs before they ran from the court room.
The suspects were transported heavily cuffed from Boksburg Prison because of the serious nature of the charges against them.
Their leg irons were all that was left behind after the men escaped.
According to police spokesperson captain Julia Claasen, the suspects overpowered the two police officers before storming from the cells.
"The circumstances surrounding the escape were still unclear but the police were still busy with an intensive investigation," Claasen said.
According to a car guard, Mandla Mhlanga, who had been standing outside the court, he saw two men running from the building.
"I was still standing here in the sun when I saw the two men running hand in hand past me and going around the corner," Mhlanga said.
"I did not think it was that strange and still watched them running off because I was looking after cars that were parked around the corner."
He said that he only realised something was amiss when the police came running towards him and he described the two men to them.
"They told me that the two men had been cuffed together and that that was probably why it looked as if they were holding hands."
None of the other suspects had been caught by late on Monday.
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