Alleged car thief shot outside court
An alleged car thief has been hospitalised after he was shot in the leg by a policeman outside a Cape Town court.
|||Cape Town - An alleged car thief has been hospitalised after he was shot in the leg by a policeman outside the Cape Town Magistrate’s Court on Thursday.
Police spokeswoman Noloyiso Rwexana said the suspect, aged 25, was caught while allegedly trying to steal a car in the Cape Town CBD at about 10:50am.
Police attempted to make an arrest in Albertus Street when the incident took place.
“Police were attempting to arrest a suspect, a fight broke out and the suspect stabbed a police official.
“The suspect was then shot and wounded by a police official,” Rwexana said.
Hishaam Mohamed, the regional head of the Department of Justice and Constitutional Development, said the suspect had been walking bare-chested on Albertus Street with a big unconcealed knife.
The man was then pursued by two detectives dressed in plain clothes. At the corner of Albertus and Parade streets the knife-wielding suspect ran towards one of the detectives.
The detective, upon seeing that he was being targeted, ran away. The second detective then tried to disarm the man. The detective who had run away saw his colleague in a scuffle with the suspect, returned and fired a shot, hitting the man in the leg, Mohamed said.
ER24 spokesman Russel Meiring said that the suspect was in a critical condition.
“On arrival, paramedics found the man slumped up against a stop sign. Assessments showed that the man had sustained a gunshot wound to his thigh and was in a serious condition.”
Meiring said paramedics treated the man and provided him with advanced life support interventions.
He was transported to New Somerset West Hospital.
Cape Argus