Well done to Camps Bay patrolmen Lekoba Seanego and Samkelo Mapolisa, and Detective Inspector Fourie.
| Court appearance: Police lead one of the six men suspected of murdering actor Brett Goldin and designer Richard Bloom from the Wynberg magistrate's court. Photo: Ian Landsberg, Cape Times |
From IoL
Police praised for work in double murder case
April 20 2006 at 05:57AM
By Caryn Dolley
Police arrested two more men in Cape Town's CBD on Wednesday for the slaying of actor Brett Goldin and designer Richard Bloom, and six men stood in the dock in Wynberg facing murder charges.
At the same time, the trio of Camps Bay policemen whose outstanding investigative work resulted in the slew of arrests, described to the Cape Times exactly how they did it.
The latest suspects are aged 20 and 25 and have not yet appeared in court. Police seized a pistol during the arrests.
This brings to eight the number of young men in custody for the Easter weekend murders, and according to investigating officer Stephen Fourie, more might be imminent.
In the dock in Wynberg's Court 4 on Wednesday were Jade Wyngaard, 19, Nurshad Davids, 20, Travino Cairncross, 22, Shavaan Marlie, 25, Rameez Zaeed, 23, and Clinton Davids, 23.
They each appeared on two charges of murder and one of robbery. Clinton Davids is the brother of alleged Americans gang boss Igshaan Davids, nicknamed "Sanie American".
Police are not yet sure if Nurshad Davids is also related to him.
As they entered the courtroom, they all looked towards the packed public gallery, then faced the front with their hands held behind their backs.
As magistrate Marietjie van Eeden addressed them, they all turned to look back at their friends and family members.
Van Eeden said the matter would be postponed until April 26 for information regarding bail to be obtained.
She told them murder was "a very serious offence".
"You run the risk of being sentenced to long periods of imprisonment if convicted," she warned them, before asking if they would appoint their own attorneys, apply for a legal aid lawyer or conduct their own defence.
All six opted for appointing their own attorneys.
When they exited the court, all six looked towards the gallery and Clinton Davids winked and smiled.
Outside the court, their tearful mothers were consoled by relatives.
Marlie, Zaeed and Clinton Davids had appeared in court on Tuesday on charges of being in possession of stolen property. Their case was postponed to Friday.
Earlier in the day, police followed a tip-off and found Bloom's missing charcoal VW Polo Playa outside a shopping centre in Athlone. The car's exterior was undamaged and it was whisked away for forensic examination.
Goldin, 27, and Bloom, 28, were found dead next to the M5 in Mowbray on Monday morning. Each had a single bullet wound in the back of his head.
They disappeared on Saturday night after leaving a dinner party in Camps Bay.
The men who were instrumental in bringing so many suspects to court are Camps Bay patrolmen Lekoba Seanego and Samkelo Mapolisa, and Detective Inspector Fourie.
They were among the essential services personnel who were honoured by Premier Ebrahim Rasool at his home on Wednesday for their outstanding work over the Easter weekend.
They related their tale to the Cape Times and their proud MEC, Leonard Ramatlakane.
Seanego was the senior policeman in the patrol vehicle when they pulled a "recklessly driven" blue Peugeot off the road in the early hours of the morning. Mapolisa is a trainee policeman.
"I thought it strange that they were driving very fast in a road which was a cul de sac.
"They went down it and I waited for them to drive back up towards us and that's when we stopped them," said Seanego.
He said they searched the three occupants of the vehicle and found one of them with Goldin's credit card, R1 040 in cash and a single bullet.
"I checked (the driver's) licence, asked him his name and realised it didn't match the one on the credit card.
"He didn't give clarity where he got the card from. They co-operated. They didn't go against us and did everything we asked."
The three were taken to the Camps Bay police station where they were questioned.
Fourie takes up the story: "As they were questioned, they started giving out information, naming names and streets.
"Cairncross (who was one of those named) was fetched from his Crawford home by an investigative team for questioning, and was then arrested."
"We followed up with the information and afterwards two (men) were arrested there. Items of (Bloom and Goldin's) clothing and parts of Bloom's car were recovered at the house."
Those two men were Wyngaard and Nurshad Davids.
Fourie said the one unknown part of the puzzle was whether there had been a gang connection to the murders. He said at this stage, the motive was robbery.
This article was originally published on page 1 of Cape Times on April 20, 2006
3 comments:
More good news.
I firmly believe in the 80/20 principle. Applied to crime, it might mean that 80% of the crime is committed by 20% of the criminals.
So arrests of cash-in-transit thiefs might have a large effect on the number of these crimes.
The following story is fantastic news. Well done to the police and the informer:
Cash-in-transit robbers caught
22/04/2006 08:40 - (SA)
From News24
Johannesburg - Mpumalanga police arrested 17 suspected cash-in-transit robbers following a shootout near Standerton in the early hours of Saturday morning, spokesperson superintendent Abie Khoabane said.
He said, following on a tip-off, members of the serious and violent crimes and the national intervention units pulled over a vehicle travelling between Perdekop and Standerton, when the occupants opened fire on them.
"Police returned fire and wounded one suspect and arrested two others. About two and half kilometres from the scene police arrested 14 other suspects. Three other suspects escaped on foot and police believe they might have been wounded," Khoabane said.
He said police seized four vehicles -- a Mercedes Benz, BMW, Mazda3 and a Toyota Venture -- believed to have been used in other crimes. Police also confiscated a number of firearms, including an AK-47 assault rifle.
Khoabane said members of the public should not try to apprehend the fleeing suspects as they were considered extremely dangerous and armed, but rather contact the police on the national toll-free number 086-001-0111 or call superintendent Arie de Beer on 082-556-5633.
And more good news:
After the shocking murder of a Craighall Park grandmother (in front of her 3 year old grandchild) during a botched hijacking, the police have arrested three suspects.
From News24
3 held for Craighall murder
22/04/2006 21:21 - (SA)
Johannesburg - Johannesburg police on Saturday arrested three men in connection with the murder of a 56-year-old Craighall Park resident during an attempted hijacking.
"One was found in hospital with a gunshot wound to the neck," said Captain Schalk Bornman.
"The other two were arrested in Alexandra. Two firearms were recovered."
The men are aged between 24 and 26. Two of them will appear in the Johannesburg Magistrate's Court on Monday to face charges of murder and attempted hijacking.
The injured suspect would remain under police guard.
The woman was shot and killed during a botched hijacking outside her home in Hamilton Street on Friday.
She was reversing out of her garage when four men approached her.
"She had a 23-year-old man and her three-year-old granddaughter in the car. The men approached her vehicle and ordered her to get out of the car, a silver C180 Mercedes Benz Compressor," said Bornman.
"The young man then ran into the house and pressed the panic button. Meanwhile, shots were fired and the woman was hit twice in the chest. She died shortly afterwards."
Bornman said a private security company vehicle arrived minutes later and parked outside the property. The guards went into the garden to investigate and, as they entered the premises, the attackers got into the security car and fled.
"A second security vehicle arrived on the scene and spotted the fleeing suspects in the other vehicle. The security guards followed the stolen vehicle and during the chase shots were fired at the suspects," said Bornman.
"The suspects in the stolen vehicle then rammed into a private vehicle in Sandton. They got out and fled on foot."
Bornman said the woman's name has been withheld at request of her family.
And more good news - particularly as these guys are known for the amount of crime they're involved in:
Children duck and dive as bullets fly
Graeme Hosken
April 25 2006 at 05:33AM
Scores of primary school children were dragged off the street by hysterical parents and teachers as police and a gang of robbers exchanged gunfire during a high-speed chase through a Pretoria suburb.
The incident involved men who are wanted in connection with a spate of armed robberies.
The shootout left a 38-year-old Mountain View shopper critically injured and three alleged robbers seriously wounded.
It began when the shopper surprised the gunmen as they came charging out of the Wonderboompoort post office in Mayville Mall on Monday.
'I heard sirens and dozens of gunshots and screams'
The gunmen, from Thokoza in Ekhuruleni, are wanted in connection with several incidents in Pretoria and Johannesburg, including hijackings.
The shopper, on his way to Checkers Hyperama, was shot three times in the stomach and chest by one of the gunmen as he pulled out a gun and ordered the robbers to surrender. The man, who shot one gunman in the head, was taken to Eugene Marais Hospital in a critical condition. He is in the intensive care unit.
A police patrol, spotting the fleeing gunmen, gave chase, driving between oncoming cars and over pavements as the robbers tried to get away.
Chasing the gunmen past Laerskool Saamspan and Bergsig in Denyssen Street as children left school for the day, the police sounded warning sirens before opening fire as the robbers began shooting randomly at parents and pupils.
The driver, trying to lose his pursuers by doing a U-turn, smashed into a wall on the corner of Hanau and Ivor streets. Leaving their wounded accomplice behind, four robbers fled on foot.
'I could hear the bullets hitting our garden wall'
Bruno Hazard, who was in his house with his wife and sister, said all hell suddenly broke loose.
"I heard sirens and dozens of gunshots and screams. I looked outside and saw police pulling a man over a fence and another man lying on the ground, blood pouring from his back and stomach," he said.
Hazard said they dived under their dining room table when a third man tried to climb over their wall.
"I could hear the bullets hitting our garden wall as police shot at the man who was shooting back.
"It was the scariest time of my life. I kept on thinking we would be shot at any moment," said Hazard.
Sonja Pretorius was sitting on her porch with her children, who had just returned home from school, when one of the robbers jumped over her garden fence.
"I got such a fright and screamed. I did not know what else to do," she said, adding that her dogs tried to attack the man as he leapt back over the palisade fence.
The man who tried to flee was shot in the chest and the back by a policeman as he attempted to shoot at him.
His accomplice was shot in the leg by another policeman as he was chased by home owner Dirk van Aswegen, who had caught him hiding behind a wall on his property.
"As I ran outside to see what was happening I saw this man hiding behind my wall and immediately chased him, yelling for the police.
"The man was shot in the leg when he tried to shoot at a policeman who was searching for him in my neighbour's garden," Van Aswegen said.
Inspector Anton Breedt said all the money, including two handguns, had been recovered.
The three wounded robbers are in a serious condition in a city hospital.
Breedt declined to name the hospital the gunmen had been taken to for security reasons.
He said a fourth robber was arrested when he was caught hiding behind a garden wall at a house on the corner of Ivor and Sarel streets.
"The fifth robber unfortunately managed to escape," Breedt said. Police were following up on information on his whereabouts and were hoping to arrest him soon.
Breedt confirmed that the robbers were from Thokoza and that police were following up information about their alleged involvement in scores of other robberies.
Pretoria area commissioner Amon Mashigo praised his members for their excellent work, saying "this was the only language that these criminals understand".
This article was originally published on page 1 of Pretoria News on April 25, 2006
Best of luck to the bystander who got involved.
Post a Comment