Living with the fear
2003-08-18 22:24
Cape Town - A father of four, one of them a six-month-old baby, died in a cash in-transit heist at a filling station in Khayelitsha on Monday.
Roderick Phillips, 45, and a colleague from Coin Security were picking up money from the Oliver filling station when he was fatally wounded.
The robbers made off with more than R100 000.
Witnesses said four armed men arrived at the filling station in a white Opel Astra and started shooting wildly.
Phillips was apparently behind the wheel of the security vehicle when the robbers opened fire.
"Phillips tried to grab his gun when the robbers shot him. The bullet went through his upper arm and hit him in the chest. He died in the vehicle," Piet Nel, spokesperson for Coin said on Monday.
The attackers made off with the two guards' pistols before fleeing in the Astra. Captain Adrian Saulse for police said the car was allegedly stolen in Langa on Sunday night.
Nel said Phillips had been with the company for three months.
Phillips's wife, Esserine, said her husband had worked in the security industry for 20 years. "I have always been afraid that something like this would happen. One never knows whether you will see them (the guards) again."