Police top brass vowed that the gangsters who shot at 14 officers who were performing their duties in Kleinvlei on Wednesday night will be found ”dead or alive”.
At about 8.45pm, members of Kleinvlei police were busy with stop-and-search operations in Ukraine and Essenhout Streets, Forest Village, when they came under attack, says police spokesperson Sergeant Wesley Twigg.
Twigg reports: “The members returned fire. We can confirm that two private vehicles and three police vehicles were damaged during the shootout between the police and the suspects.
“No loss of life and no injuries were reported. Kleinvlei police are investigating attempted murder and attacks on police cases.”
Provincial police commissioner Lieutenant-General Thembisile Patekile says while no officers were injured, the brazen shooters will pay for shooting at the police.
Patekile confirms: “I’ve directed that those people must be found dead or alive.
“There is no way that we are going to tolerate gangsters shooting at the police like they’re nothing.
“We are going to be asking the municipality for proper lighting.
“The reason they couldn’t do anything was because of the darkness and they couldn’t see where the people came from.
“But we’ve deployed our specialised team like the Tactical Response Team there to find those people, dead or alive.
“There’s no way we can allow them to attack the State and then we don’t respond appropriately.”
Provincial Police Oversight and Community Safety MEC Reagen Allen says it’s is disheartening when the police, who serve and protect the community, come under fire.
He adds: “We have always been clear, any attack on SAPS members or law enforcement officers is an attack on the state and those particular perpetrators should be dealt with harshly.
“When we look at the criminal justice system, it is failing us and this is the direct result that we are seeing now in our communities. These criminals are so brazen because they know that nothing will happen to them.”