/ 12 December 2006

Robbers strike twice and deadly in Johannesburg

Robbers struck twice within minutes in Bryanston in northern Johannesburg on Monday night, leaving a man dead and another injured, paramedics said.

ER24 spokesperson Werner Vermaak said paramedics were dispatched to Galway Street in Bryanston at about 7.15pm after ”multiple gunshots” were heard. There they found a man shot dead in his backyard.

His wife told them that two armed men had climbed over the fence while her husband was sitting in the yard, and demanded money. They then shot him twice in the chest.

They held a gun to the wife’s head before running away, having stolen only a cellphone.

The paramedics after attending at the scene drove a short distance down Galway Street when they heard four more gunshots. Residents came ”screaming and running out” of the Bel Air townhouse complex.

The paramedics then entered the complex accompanied by ADT security guards. They found a man in his 50s with ”severe facial injuries”.

The man said he had been standing outside his garage door when the two armed men — presumably the attackers in the first incident — approached him, and fired several shots at him. All the shots missed, but the men threw him to the ground, which was how he was injured.

Vermaak said the man was treated on the scene, but declined ambulance transport. One of his neighbours drove him to hospital.

The woman whose husband was shot dead was receiving counselling at the scene, he said. — Sapa