A cash van guard opened fire when he drove into the middle of a wild gun battle between warring gangsters and thought he was about to be robbed.
In the ensuing shoot-out at a garage in Penlyn Estate near Hanover Park on Saturday one of the gangsters, who had an American flag flying from his car's aerial, was shot dead.
A man was shot in a leg as he was drawing money from an ATM at the garage in Bellmore Avenue as the shooting raged around him.
Police arrested three men at the scene and will run ballistics tests on bullets collected there in an attempt to determine who shot whom.
The owner of the garage, Mohamed Shaik, said the drama began at noon on Saturday when two groups of men believed to be from two rival Cape Flats gangs pulled up at his car wash and started shooting at each other.
"I guess the cash van arrived at the wrong time. One of the guards, thinking it was an attack on his van, opened fire," Shaik said.
"One of the gunmen fell dead next to his car, which had a blue, red and white American flag on the aerial."