Ambushed and shot reaction officers crawl 2km to safety outside Barberton
Two AG Solutions reaction officers were recently ambushed when they responded to a call-out at a hijacking near the town.
Trapped in a downpour of bullets with a gunshot wound to the knee, an AG Solutions reaction officer and his partner had to crawl their way to safety following an ambush on June 13.
Ethiene Lourens and Callen Herbst of AG Solutions had responded to a hijacking just outside Barberton on Monday afternoon when the incident occurred.
Lourens survived the attack, however, he is currently still in hospital and in need of multiple operations.
Speaking to Lowvelder about the ambush, Herbst said that following the call-out to the hijacking, they began tracking the vehicle, which led them to a dirt road in a plantation just outside Barberton.
He said when they did not find the car where the coordinates had indicated, the pair spotted tyre tracks and decided to follow them.
“We drove along a very narrow dirt road for about 8km until we came across a freshly chopped tree blocking the road,” said Herbst.
He was able to direct Lourens around the tree, and after driving a little further, they found the hijacked vehicle.
“The car had already been completely stripped and there was no one in the area when we found it. We got back onto the road to get to an area that had cellphone reception so we could call the police, when we came across the tree again.
“It was starting to get dark and we decided to try and move it so the police could get through,” he said.
Herbst said as the two were fixing rope to the back of their vehicle to move the tree, a sudden burst of gunfire ripped through the air around them.
“They just started firing all of a sudden, and we could hear three different guns being used, all long rifles (R1s and R5s) from different directions.”
Herbst said he immediately dived down into the bush and began firing back.
“Ethiene had been shot in the knee. I carried him out of the gunfire into the bush and then we both just started crawling away from the gunfire. We could not see any of the suspects and we were running low on ammunition.”
After crawling almost 2km through bush, and with a bullet wound to Lourens’ knee, the pair saw cellphone lights.
“We stayed down and didn’t know if it was the suspects looking for us or not. All of a sudden, we heard footsteps nearing us, but they were not coming from the people who were on their cellphones.”
As the footsteps got closer, a security van drove down the road and Herbst was able to flag it down.
“We loaded Ethiene into the vehicle and drove out to the main road, where we called the police and ER24.”
Herbst said the whole experience felt like a movie.
“It was too close,” he said.
A case of attempted murder was opened at the Nelspruit Police Station and has since been transferred to Barberton’s. Herbst added that a case of hijacking had been opened at the Barberton Police Station as well, however, the spokesperson had not responded to a media query by the time of going to press.
Herbst said Lourens is thought to be recovering well, but many operations are still needed and it is unclear just how long the road to recovery will be.
