Two Roodepoorters in bizarre PE hostage drama
Father and son blame government for death wish.
A father (53), Ernest H Lottering and son (19) (name unknown) from Roodepoort were involved in a strange hostage drama in Seaview, Port Elizabeth on 21 October, according to SAPS spokesperson Captain Stanley Jarvis.
The two men entered the Seaview Pharmacy at approximately 1pm and ordered the pharmacist, Myra Booth, and her two assistants to prepare “lethal injections” for them after saying that they were “fed up with the mess the current government has gotten us into”. The men were using a toy gun and threatened that they had a bomb.
Booth agreed to their demand but instead prepared tranquillisers for the men, after which she and her two assistants were released. She managed to press the panic button and the private security company and the SAPS came to the scene.
Meanwhile the men barricaded themselves in the mini-clinic inside the pharmacy.
By 4.30pm no progress had been made with the negotiations as the two men refused to hand themselves over or give the police any information about themselves.
At 9.15pm the police evacuated all bystanders and the media, and used stun grenades to enter the pharmacy.
The police arrested the two men, who allegedly were living in a tent in the area, and currently they are being held in St Albans Prison.
A case of pointing a firearm was opened but Jarvis told the Record that more charges will be added during their second court appearance on 25 October.
