They believed that they were abandoned in their home, and fled to an unfamiliar place for the criminals, two of whom died, who they witnessed died painfully at the petrol garage, Engen, outside the shopping mall, Pavilion, Durban, yesterday.
In this incident, two people died, one of them died from a gunshot wound, which appears to have died inside the car, in the seat next to the driver. Then the second one, who apparently got out of the back seat, said he was running away, he was aiming for the wall behind the garage, and he was going to fall on top of himself because it was going down very high meters. The third one, who appears to have been the driver, survived, however, Sigonyela’s bracelets were worn.
According to the source, who asked not to be named, the car sped into the garage, being run over by a security company car.
“We noticed that it was shot as it had a hole in its body, there was even a dead window,” said the source.
He said that when the security company told the police who had been called to the scene of the incident, he gathered that the robbers were suspects who had been involved in robbery in different places in Durban.
“We heard that the security guards chased them away from Mhlanga, and that’s when there was a shootout between them as it turned out that they shot first at the security guards,” he said.
He said they heard that the suspects were robbing people, and then withdrawing money from bank machines.
“We suspect that the people did not know the place at all because if they did, the one who stood on the long wall would have known that he should not jump where he jumped. At the very least, he would have run away and died, because there is Chesterville township nearby, he could have just disappeared between the houses and disappeared from sight,” said the source.
KwaZulu-Natal police spokesperson, Colonel Robert Netshiunda, said the police are investigating a case of murder and attempted murder following the incident that took place at the petrol station.
Narrating the incident, he said one suspect was found dead inside a white BMW with gunshot wounds. Then the second one was found dead after he got out of the same car, he tried to jump over the long wall (of the garage), and he just fell and died.
“Reports indicate that a white BMW with three people ran past the security guards who were walking on the M19 road. It is said that they chose to follow him and when he was there, they opened fire on the security guards,” said Netshiunda.
He said that’s where our strength came from, the security guards returned fire, they continued to chase them with the car until they reached the garage.
“The police investigation found that the BMW had wrong number plates. The driver surrendered to the police and was arrested,” said Netshiunda, who said that two guns were also found inside the BMW.