Two suspects are under police guard in hospital after committing several crimes in Muizenberg on Friday.
Police reports indicate that the two armed suspects broke into a home in Moselle Road in Muizenberg’s Friday morning, took several items and tied the owner (82-year-old woman) up with cable ties and fled the scene.
Several metres from the first scene the fleeing suspects robbed another person of a cellular telephone. Once the suspects got to the Main Road, St James they attempted to hijack a vehicle driven by a woman. When members of the public intervened they turned their attention to another vehicle whose driver also tried to assist the driver of the first vehicle. A third vehicle rammed into the second vehicle knocking one suspect down. He sustained serious injury after being hit by the third vehicle that rammed into the door of the second vehicle that was being hijacked. At the time, other suspect fled from the scene dropping a firearm in a nearby bush.
Muizenberg police rushing to the scene saw a man fitting the description of one of the suspects and chased him. He was subsequently apprehended.
Inside the second vehicle the suspects attempted to hijack, police found several items stolen from the home in Moselle Road. They included jewellery, money in foreign currency, a cellular telephone and firearm.
As part of ongoing investigations into the different crime scenes, police embarked on a search for the firearm that was allegedly thrown into a nearby bush by the second suspect who fled the scene. At 15:45 on Friday afternoon they recovered the firearm.
The assistance of members of the public in aiding the crime victims and police in apprehending the suspects is commended.
The suspects (one in his early 20s and the other in his 30s) who face house robbery, pointing with a firearm, armed robbery and possession of firearm and ammunition charges will appear in court once they are released from hospital. Police have also ascertained that the suspects have links to gangs. As the investigations unfold, the possibility of the suspects linked to other crimes cannot be ruled out.
Source: South African Police Service