NELSPRUIT – A man suspected of carrying an illegal firearm was accidentally run over by a car in Madiba Drive on Wednesday morning.
The accident occurred just past the traffic lights at the turn-off to Nkomazi Fuel. The suspect was allegedly found with an unlicensed firearm in his possession and tried to flee from police.
They stopped two men who were walking next to the road, hitchhiking on the N4 in the direction of Middelburg. They were searched and and an unlicensed firearm was allegedly found in a bag of one of the men. They allegedly fled from police, running off in different directions across the road.
Police managed to find the one in a litchi orchard and allegedly discovered two snatches of crack (cocaine rocks) in his possession. Two eyewitnesses told Lowvelder that in the meantime, the other suspect came back across the road and tried to get a lift from a truck driver.
When the driver refused, the man allegedly told witnesses not to tell the police they had seen him, and that “it wasn’t him”.
He tried to cross the road a third time and was in the middle of the two carriage ways when Mr Wayne Gerber, driving into town from Pretoria on business, noticed him.
“There were police vehicles in front and behind me,” Gerber said on the scene. “We were not driving fast. I was in the right-hand lane. I saw the man contemplating to run across the road and swerved in an effort to avoid hitting him. He hesitated for a second before making a dash for the other side. I tried to swerve some more but he ran into my side mirror and into the door.”
Gerber’s Mahindra ended up in the middle lane and the suspect collapsed in the road. He was still breathing when the Mpumalanga Emergency Medical Services vehicle arrived on the scene some 20 minutes after the media.
He was treated by paramedics and taken to hospital while his alleged accomplice waited patiently in the backseat of a police vehicle on the scene.
