Man kills friend's hijacker
2011-05-09 10:13
Janice Keogh, Beeld
Johannesburg - A man has shot and killed his friend’s suspected hijacker after he received an SMS with the details of the hijacking and happened to see his friend's hijacked car near a restaurant.
Police spokesperson Colonel Lungelo Dlamini said a middle-aged man was hijacked and thrown out of his car in Linksfield in northern Johannesburg at about 18:30 on Saturday.
The hijacker drove off in the man's blue Mercedes-Benz and disabled the tracking system in the Kew area.
The hijacker then drove in the direction of the Nando’s restaurant in Corlett Road near Melrose Arch. The hijack victim meanwhile sent out an SMS to friends saying he had been hijacked.
One of his friends who received the SMS, an ex-security guard, happened to be near the Nando’s and saw his friend’s car.
He stopped at the restaurant and approached the driver of the car before shooting him in the chest. The suspected hijacker had a weapon with him.
“He (the friend) was not arrested because he prevented a crime. An inquest docket has been created to investigate the circumstances around his death,” Dlamini said.
The car was returned to its owner.
According to Gilly Levy, head of operations at CAP Security, a second vehicle was involved in the incident. CAP was informed of the hijacking.
The hijack victim, who was too traumatised to talk to reporters, had been thrown in the back of another vehicle and this car and his own vehicle had driven around for about an hour before the hijackers dropped him off unhurt, Levy said.
The other two suspects are still at large.