As the gunfire fades in Rosettenville, residents speak out after fatal battle

Shocked Rosettenville residents gathered around 50 Friars Hill Road on Tuesday where a day earlier at least 100 bullets were exchanged between police and a gang of alleged cash-in-transit (CIT) robbers.

The Independent Police Investigative Directorate (Ipid) said eight robbers were killed at the scene, and a police officer succumbed to a bullet in the forehead at Milpark Hospital.

One of the dead criminals is a former member of the military.

Ipid said the gang totalled 25 members.

Nine fled the scene on Monday, two of whom are suspected to be police officers. Eight other suspects were arrested.

On Tuesday, bullet holes and police markers on the tarmac were the only signs of the incident in the quiet suburban road. The house on Friars Hill is opposite Saint Martin’s School and the South Rand Hospital. 

Shocked residents living in the compound said there are six families living in the house, including the alleged leader of the gang.

Betty Shezi, 60, was resting in bed with her 14-year-old daughter when TimesLIVE visited.

Their home consists of a small bedroom with an attached kitchen and bathroom, very neat but with one glaring exception: the back wall which faces the compound courtyard on the one side and the double bed on the other has been punctured by three holes near the ceiling.

The projection of the automatic weapon bullets is a reminder of the gun battle which came close to killing Shezi’s daughter. 

Daylight can be seen through holes the size of R5 coins. One bullet left a brown smear on the ceiling near the light fixture. It can be followed to the kitchen wall with another brown smear. Then it is lost between the gap between the fridge and wall and out past the security gate on the front door.

Police minister Bheki Cele said weapons recovered from the scene were AK-47s with double magazines and R4 rifles.

He said they also discovered explosives and petrol. 

Shezi was in Alberton where she works as a domestic worker when the incident occurred.

“It was late afternoon when I got the call. I was being taken to the taxi rank after work when [a neighbour] said she was with my daughter at the hospital after a shooting,” she said.

She said she started running to the hospital after being dropped off.

“I kept falling down. I was in a panic.

“I no longer feel safe here. I called around in Alberton to see if there was space [to move],” she said.

Shezi said she had a feeling something bad was going to happen after a strange occurrence on Friday.

“I got home and the parking [courtyard area] was full of high-end cars. I kept peeping out the window to see what was going on.

“Something was wrong and I was praying. There were new cars and I was wondering where they got the cars from.”

She said the cars arrived around midday and left about 5pm.

She didn’t know the men involved in the shoot-out, despite moving in a year ago.

She said she did not expect anything like what happened on Monday.

“It’s shocking. You realise you don’t know the people you are living with.

“On Sunday I told [my daughter] if anything happened she must sit on the floor at the end of the bed. That’s where she went when the shooting started.”

Once police entered the compound a neighbour told them about Shezi’s daughter and they extracted her and and sent her to the hospital.

Another resident, who did not want to be named, said her daughter was traumatised after the pair had to duck for cover.

“This is a double stand which has been hijacked. Tenants pay the ‘owner’ who calls from a private number,” the resident said.

While the woman spoke to the reporter, a family was moving out.

A man co-ordinating the move said he was a friend of “a man who died” on Monday.

As TimesLIVE exited the property, a municipal official arrived to attach a pre-termination notice to the gate.

The notice flapped in the wind like a plaster on a bullet wound — a little too late.

It was addressed to “Khoza” and reads that the owner owes R20,420.17 for “services and other related charges”.

Outside, cars slowed as they passed and residents stopped to take photos and share stories about the event.

Nineteen-year-old friends Jason Kian Montgomery and Shaffie Mongi were walking past.

“I was fetching Mongi from the mall and we were walking back together when we received the call to go back to the mall,” Montgomery said.

Mongi said the gunfire seemed to last for hours. 

The men laughed that Montgomery had only just moved to the area on Monday when the drama occurred.

A man who witnessed the shoot-out spoke to TimesLIVE anonymously as he was concerned police would react to his statement about their actions. 

The middle-aged man was in an Uber on his way to visit a friend at the South Rand Hospital.

The map of the street can be used as reference to his telling of the incident. 

He said the Uber came from Yestor Road and was turning right into Friars Hill Road (following the black arrows in the graphic).

“I saw a helicopter going past and then it hovered (above the house circled in green). A few seconds later we heard the bullets.

“The Uber stopped a few metres into Friars Hill Road and I opened the window to hear better where the shots were coming from. Minutes later, seven unmarked police cars drove past. We drove back to the stop sign on the corner and the cops pulled out their guns. The Uber driver told me to get out and drove away.”

The man hid on the corner of Friars Hill and Yestor roads (the red circle in the graphic), peeping out from the Saint Martin’s School wall. Two women were hiding behind him. More police vehicles stopped at the corner.

“The police were following a silver BMW which had stopped to meet the gang leader and that’s how police knew it was that house,” he said.

He said he saw the police officer in the helicopter hit by a bullet.

According to bystanders, the chopper hovered above a tree to the left of the front of the compound. The man said he knew the police were in danger of being shot because of how low they were flying.

He said the officer was shot while leaning out of the helicopter . Immediately after that his colleagues pulled him back into the chopper, which lifted and flew away.

Paramedics later said the helicopter flew to Milpark Hospital, barely making after taking heavy fire.

The man alleged after the helicopter was shot at, the officers shot back and the gang leader was killed.

He claimed bullet holes on the compound wall came from the police.

“After the chopper left, the criminals thought the coast was clear and they came out of the house. A white plane came over followed by four police officers who shot two of them ,” he said.

He said some of the criminals got away by jumping over a low back wall.

“The only thing left in me is fear. I told my son that day that life is short.”

Another witness said civilians were running screaming into the hospital. 

Ipid spokesperson Grace Langa said five police officers were injured in the gun battle.

She said 18 members were involved.

National crime intelligence, Johannesburg metro police department K9, Flying Squad, EMPD Special Task Team, Pretoria Airwing, Johannesburg Airwing, Guerrilla Tactical services, the Road Traffic Management Corporation and highway patrol members were following information about suspects who were planning to commit a CIT heist in the Johannesburg area.

Langa described the incident in a formal summary.

“The chopper was hovering above the [alleged robbers’] safe house while other members took positions on the ground. When the suspects noticed the chopper they started shooting at it and police in the helicopter retaliated by shooting back at the suspects.

“The members on the ground joined in and suspects continued shooting at the police officers.

“The suspects tried to escape out of the safe house, some on foot, some in vehicles and others jumped over walls to neighbouring houses.”

She said the shoot-out continued for a long time.

“More backup vehicles from police and other law enforcement agencies arrived at the scene.

“Five suspects who jumped over to a neighbour’s house held the occupants hostage.

“When the members went into this house, the shoot-out continued.”

She said police managed to overpower and arrest 10 suspects Two of these suspects were wounded and were taken to hospital under police guard.

“The backup vehicles from Mofatt View police station were chasing other suspects who had fled the scene and hijacked a white VW Polo Vivo. Another shoot-out ensued between suspects and officers.”

Langa said the crime scene is so big they have broken it into five scenes, labelled on the map above.

Scene 1 encircled in green is the safe house. Among other things, five stolen vehicles, five commercial explosives and three detonator codes were found.

Scene 2, yellow, is Friars Hill Road spanning four blocks. Among other things, three bodies, nine vehicles, nine small commercial explosives, one gel commercial explosive and four detonator codes were found.

Scene 3 encircled in purple. The corner of Short and Violet streets where a deceased ex-military member and suspect lay with an assault rifle with a filed-off serial number.

Scene 4, pink, next to a house on Victoria Street. Among other things, balaclavas and an AK47 rifle with the serial number filed off were found.

Scene 5, orange Hekla Road. Five suspects entered a neighbour’s house and allegedly held the occupants hostage. 

Langa said officers were traumatised by what happened.

TimesLIVE