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The Herald
Thupeyo muleya
Beitbridge Bureau
A lone gunman who held 10 people hostage, including his 10-year-old niece, was shot and killed by police in a 14-hour movie-style operation at a house in the Dulivhadzimu suburb of Beitbridge yesterday afternoon. tomorrow.
The man, who was identified as John Sithole, also known as Kedha, was on the police wanted list in connection with several armed robberies in Beitbridge and on the roads to Harare and Bulawayo.
The Herald understands that the suspect was commencing his operations from Musina in South Africa and would most of the time jump the border across the Limpopo River.
At the end of yesterday, the police were still verifying the age of the man who is believed to be from Chipinge and is between 22 and 25 years old.
It took a police special tactics team and members of the Support Unit nine hours to subdue the heavily armed Sithole.
During the confrontation, Sithole managed to shoot and wound a detective in the arm.
The police special tactics team arrives on the scene.The city was paralyzed for more than eight hours with cars and residents filling nearby streets to witness the shooting.
According to neighbors, the suspect had stayed in the house for two weeks.
“I was terrified hearing the sound of loud gunfire in the middle of the night behind my house. When I got out, I saw some armed policemen and there were already some spent cartridges. The police calmed us down and told us that they were chasing a dangerous armed robber next door, ”said Ms. Rumbedzani Ribombo.
A large crowd that gathered to witness the confrontation.The national police spokesman, Deputy Commissioner Paul Nyathi, said it was regrettable that someone had been killed and urged people to avoid the exchange of gunfire with the police and to follow their orders.
“It is sad that the suspect has died. We wanted to question him to clarify a series of cases of armed robbery, ”said Asst Comm Nyathi. “Initially, the suspect evaded arrest in the Limpopo River and hid in his rented house in Dulivhadzimu, where he was found by our detectives.
“As he was armed, they ordered him to surrender, but he turned violent and took 10 people hostage in the house and opened fire on the police. They tried everything to make him surrender, but he did not give in and kept firing until reinforcements were called from our special tactics unit, ”said Asst Comm Nyathi.
The door next to the room where the suspect was finally shot to death in a shootout with the police special tactics unit.He said police managed to free all 10 hostages, including the man’s wife and niece, but the man remained in combat mode until he was killed.
His body was taken to the morgue at Beitbridge District Hospital.
The incident came a few weeks after the country’s most wanted armed robber, Taj Abdul Musa, was arrested in the same city while planning a robbery.
