Bullet proof vest saves police officers’ life in police station
A police officer is lucky to be alive.
A police officer is lucky that he wore his bullet proof vest, after a suspect’s gun went off at the Middelburg Police Station.
According to lieutenant Colonel Jabu Ndubane, provincial media spokesperson, a relief officer entered the office at the same moment a police officer was stumbling to his knees.
Seconds earlier a gunshot rang out, and chaos ensued.
The public was immediately chased out of the temporary charge office while an ambulance was dispatched, with colleagues believing that the police officer had been shot in the stomach.
Luckily he had a bullet proof vest on and the bullet did not penetrate his body.
From the information Ndubane received, she said that the police arrested a suspect earlier today at Doornkop on a charge of housebreaking.
At the police station, the police member saw that the 9mm pistol they took from the suspect was cocked, and when they tried to uncock the gun, it went off hitting the member in the stomach.
The bullet, however, struck his vest and no serious injuries were sustained.
• The suspect is charged with house breaking as well as possession of an unlicenced firearm and ammunition.
• The front entrance of the police station is under renovation and the finance office at the back next to the SAP 13 camp is now being used as the charge office. That is where the incident happened.
• A female police officer was wounded early this morning while responding to a ATM robbery in eMalahleni. The woman was wounded in a knee and was rushed to hospital where she is still being treated.
