Two residents of Belladonna Street fell victim to an armed robbery on Wednesday March 8 after arriving home where three suspects were lying in wait.

According to Divergent Ops, the suspects confronted the residents, who held them at gunpoint, cable-tied their hands together and shoved them into their Toyota Hilux GD6 bakkie.

“One suspect was sitting with the two victims in the back while the other two suspects were in the front seats. One of the victims managed to cut loose his hands using a pocket knife that he had managed to get from his trousers, and used it to attack their assailants. This led to the vehicle veering off the road and crashing shortly after.”

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The security company said reports of multiple gunshots came through at 23:09 on a West Acres WhatsApp group.

“Our control room dispatched three vehicles to the scene. Divergent Ops’ Smoke was the first to arrive on scene at 23:15, and found that it was a positive armed robbery and hijacking.” The company said the officer found Fidelity ADT on the way and requested assistance from them. Once he arrived at the scene, he checked on the victims and noticed a blood trail on the ground.

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“He followed the blood trail and found a person lying in the bushes in Eugene Marais Street. The person was dragged out and our armed response officer wanted to check for any weapons that might be on the ground where the suspect was lying, as well as to try and request medical assistance. The suspect was alive at that point in time.”

No weapon was found on the suspect and it was determined that he was not a direct threat anymore.

Divergent Ops’ control room had requested assistance from Emer-G-Med and the SAPS in the meantime in order to assist on scene with the victims and the one suspect. The other two suspects had fled the scene and could not be found.

“The suspect found on scene was later declared deceased at the crime scene. We also received anonymous information from Mataffin that one of the other suspects had sought medical assistance from a doctor there who could not assist him. We have been unable to get any further information about the remaining two suspects.”

According to the security company, the deceased suspect was also identified as one of the hijackers of a red Toyota Hilux Legend 45 on the Badplaas road earlier on the same evening. A firearm and money was also taken in that hijacking. The vehicle was recovered on Dr Enos Mabuza Drive near Noordsig Estate about two to three hours before the Belladonna incident had taken place.