An armed robbery at a restaurant in Little Falls led to a dramatic chase and shootout between robbers and law enforcement.
The police, BCI Security and First Help Towing Service left no stone unturned when they pursued the vehicle of the suspected robbers of a Debonairs/ Steers outlet at The Falls Shopping Centre on Saturday, 7 December.
Arno Dorfling, BCI’s operations manager, said their colleague informed the control room of gunshots coming from the shopping centre.
“The guard was on duty at a site next to the shopping centre and went out to investigate,” he said.
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Dorfling said the guard initially thought it was a hijacking taking place in the parking area and requested urgent backup.
“The BCI control room dispatched one of its junior managers to the shopping centre, who was on scene in less than a minute. When he arrived he was informed that the Debonairs/ Steers outlet had been robbed and that the robbers had fired shots. Luckily nobody was hit,” he explained.
Upon his arrival, the suspects had already fled the scene. Dorfling added that the information pertaining to the incident was relayed to the control room, from where the police was contacted so that a vehicle could be dispatched.
“At that moment an ER24 member came on the ER24/BCI WhatsApp group and said that a First Help Towing member was in pursuit of the getaway vehicle linked to the robbery. While the towing vehicle was following the suspects, the driver kept on updating the ER24 member who in turn updated the location on the ER24/ BCI WhatsApp group. That information was then relayed to two other WhatsApp groups so that everyone knew the location of the suspects. A description of the vehicle and also the registration was given,” he explained.
Dorfling said getting information from the towing vehicle was taking too long through all the groups so the Director of BCI contacted the towing vehicle directly. “She kept the passenger in the towing vehicle on the line and gave the information she received to the BCI CEO who in turn updated the WhatsApp groups as they were following the suspects,” he said.
The Roodepoort Police K9 Unit was among those monitoring the chase. The members spotted the vehicle in the vicinity of Miles Stoker Road and gave chase. It looked like the suspects were heading towards Main Reef Road.
“At the Miles Stoker circle the police managed to stop the vehicle. Three suspects immediately followed the instructions of the police to exit the vehicle and lie down. The two remaining suspects did not comply but got out of the vehicle a few seconds later, both holding firearms. They refused to put down the firearms when instructed to do so. It is believed that they fired at the police members. There was a brief exchange of gunfire which left the two suspects wounded in the legs,” he detailed.
He said ER24 was dispatched to the scene to treat the two wounded suspects. They were then transported to a nearby hospital under police guard.
“After searching the vehicle, police recovered an undisclosed amount of cash that had been taken during the robbery, as well as three unlicensed firearms. The remaining suspects were taken to Roodepoort Police Station,” he explained.
All role players were thanked for bringing all the suspects to book.
