Three shot, two arrested after attempted hijacking in Heidel Valley
Upon the reaction officer and the farmer's arrival, the suspects opened fire, hitting the Hi-Tech member in his heel.
Three individuals were shot following an attempted hijacking in broad daylight on Wednesday.
Two Hi-Tech officials, Jchaan de Beer and Lourens de Bruin, responded to an attempted hijacking on a farm road in the Heidel Valley at around 09:30.
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A women, whose identity is not known, was heading home in an Isuzu bakkie accompanied by a worker when they were ambushed by what at the time was believed to be one suspect.
According to De Beer, a scuffle for the bakkie’s keys ensued. “The suspect fired a shot, hitting the worker in his forearm,” said De Beer.
The suspect then fled in another bakkie. A subsequent manhunt followed. “We received information of between five and six suspects on the run in a nearby plantation, heading towards the Brondal Road,” he said.
“The two scenes are not far from one another and we had good reason to believe that these men were involved in the earlier incident,” said De Beer.
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“We left the first scene to attend to the second. An armed reaction officer of Hi-Tech also responded, as well as a member of farming community,” said De Beer. The latter’s wife and children were victims of a farm attack in 2016.
At the time of going to press, he could not be reached for comment. Upon the reaction officer and the farmer’s arrival, the suspects opened fire, hitting the Hi-Tech member in his heel. The farmer returned fire, hitting one of the suspects in the shoulder. The men then overpowered him and took his firearm as well as his Toyota Land Cruiser.
They fled, leaving behind the wounded suspect. Still on their way to the scene, De Beer and De Bruin saw a suspicious-looking Toyota Avanza they had noticed earlier that day. “We decided to investigate and found one wounded suspect and two more accomplices in the vehicle,” De Beer said.
“We believe that the Avanza was waiting for the suspects on the Brondal Road,” De Beer said. All three occupants of the Avanza were taken into custody. The Land Cruiser was later recovered in a nearby plantation, but the suspects had fled.
