By Lehlohonolo Lehana.
Four suspected robbers have been killed and two others injured during a shootout with police in Glen Austin, Midrand, Johanneburg
Hawks spokesperson Colonel Katlego Mogale said officers received intelligence that an armed gang was planning to rob a truck carrying electronic devices.
She said officers from different units, as well as security guards, spotted four vehicles trying to stop the truck.
Mogale said a high-speed chase then ensued between the police and the gang.
“Four suspects were fatally wounded and two others suffered minor injuries which were attended to on scene,” she said.
Mogale said the two injured suspects are in police custody.
“Two unlicensed firearms were recovered on the scene, while the four vehicles used by the suspects have questionable origins which are under investigation.”
The suspects are expected to appear in court soon.
In a separate incident, swift response to information received resulted in the speedy arrest of two alleged stock thieves on January 17, in Cookhouse.
According to police spokesperson, Colonel Priscilla Naidu, it is alleged that at about 06:30, SAPS Cookhouse members responded to a complaint of the slaughtering of sheep at a farm in the Cookhouse area.
She said as the police approached the farm, the suspects spotted them and started running.
“The members had found two sheep that had already been slaughtered and another two sheep were killed and tied up,” said Naidu.
She further said the SAPS members managed to arrest one suspect, aged 53, while he was walking on the main road and had blood stains on his clothes.
Naidu said the second suspect, aged 35, was later arrested at his house in the area while the three other suspects are still on the run.
The suspects were charged for stock theft and will appear in the Bedford Magistrate’s Court today, January 18.