Cop shooting a tragedy - Phiyega
2013-01-15 14:25
Pretoria - The fatal shooting of a police officer who was mistaken
for a robber in Hillbrow is a tragedy, national police
commissioner Riah Phiyega said on Tuesday.
"Yesterday, could have been a tragedy of good
intentions - purely a police tragedy," she said in Pretoria.
"We [the police] are not trigger-happy people."
She said police were there to ensure the law was adhered to
and to keep South Africans safe.
Robbery
On Monday, a police officer was killed and two others
injured when police mistook them for robbers and shot them.
Police arrested one man after an attempted robbery in
Hillbrow on Monday.
The saga started when police officers ran after one of the
suspected robbers.
Another officer, 29, in a police van, also followed him and
when he blocked the robber's path he was shot and wounded in the neck.
Two other officers, in civilian clothes, followed the
shooter with their weapons drawn, when they were confronted by other officers
who thought they were fleeing criminals. The two constables were shot.
One officer, aged 31, was shot and killed, and another,
aged, 30, was wounded.
The wounded officers were taken to Milpark Hospital. No
arrests had been made.
Manhunt
Phiyega said investigations continued. Gauteng police had
launched a manhunt for the two robbers.
The Independent Police Investigative Directorate was also
investigating.
Phiyega said the police did not operate on notions or
sayings like "shoot to kill".
Instead, they sought to do their work "in the spirit of
the Constitution".
- SAPA
