Pretoria - Provincial commissioner of police in Gauteng, Lieutenant General Elias Mawela has saluted a law enforcement team that arrested a wanted suspect who has been on the run following the murder of two Department of Correctional Services officials last month.
The two were ambushed and killed on July 12 while they were tracing an absconding parolee at Extension 7, Langaville in Tsakane.
“A multi-disciplinary team, on August 3, 2022 proceeded to Etwatwa in Ekurhuleni District. They spotted the vehicle that the suspect was supposedly travelling in,” Gauteng provincial police spokesperson Brigadier Brenda Muridili said.
She said the vehicle, a Nissan Sentra, sped off when the occupants noticed that they were being followed.
“The team pursued and then cornered them on Eiselen Street. The suspect was apprehended and he was found with a firearm and ammunition that belonged to one of the murdered Correctional Services officials.
“They then took the suspect to his residence where an unlicensed firearm believed to be a murder weapon was seized. The two firearms will be taken to the Forensic Science Laboratory for ballistic testing,” Muridili said.
She said the law enforcement team comprised of officers from the Gauteng murder and robbery unit, Organised Crime Investigations, Ekurhuleni Metro Police as well as officials from the Department of Correctional Services.
The arrested suspect will soon be appearing in the Tsakane Magistrate’s Court to face two counts of murder and possession of unlicensed firearms and ammunition.
Meanwhile, the national Department of Correctional Services has confirmed that the arrested suspect was the parolee which the two slain officers were hunting for, when they were ambushed.
IOL