A gun-slinging gangster from Hanover Park met his match over the weekend when he opened fire on Metro cops, but got shot in the face instead.
According to a source, the man known as “Yaati” of the Ghetto Kidz gang, mistook cops for members of a rival gang and opened fire in Lansur Road on Saturday morning.
“He and another Ghetto were standing in the road when the Metro van came,” says the source.
“They thought it was the Derwent Kidz because in the last week the Ghettos have been fighting the Americans, Derwent Kidz and Dollar Kidz.
“When they saw the taxi, they thought it was for a drive-by shooting and fired on the cops, but the cops fired back and he was caught, but his friend ‘did spat’.
“It’s only as the cops jumped out that the skollies saw they were in uniform.”
PROBE: Police on the scene at the Hanover Park shooting. PHOTO: SUPPLIED.
Metro Police spokesperson, Sergeant Ruth Solomons, says shortly before 6am, officers of the Gang and Drug Task Team (GDTT) responded to a Shotspotter alert in Lansur Street.
“On arrival, officers came under fire from two suspects. They retaliated, wounding one of the suspects,” Solomons says.
“The second man ran away. Officers apprehended a 29-year-old male and recovered a CZ 75 9mm pistol with serial number filed off and four live rounds of ammunition.”
She says the suspect was taken to Groote Schuur Hospital by SAPS, where he was treated for a flesh wound above his right eye.
Police spokesperson, Sergeant Noloyiso Rwexana, says Philippi police are now investigating an attempted murder and possession of firearm case.
WEAPON: Firearm seized. PHOTO: SUPPLIED.
Community Police Forum (CPF) chairperson, Ebrahiem Abrahams, says crime fighters will work on a plan to address the recent flare-up in gang violence which also resulted in a nine-year-old girl, Tamsley Fortuin, being struck in the mouth last week.
He says Hanover Park gunmen have become increasingly brazen following the removal of former visible police commander, Colonel Dawood Laing, to Grassy Park Police Station.
“Laing was mos their ‘bogeyman’. They don’t care now because there is no cop to be scared of anymore,” says Abrahams.
“We are happy about the arrest and welcome the quick action of Metro cops. It just shows how quick the skollies are to shoot without any regard for life.”