Members of the community policing forum (CPF) in Inanda, north of Durban, where police shot and killed five people on Thursday morning, told Sowetan that the deceased were a menace to society. <\/p>\n
They expressed hope that their deaths would send a warning to other criminals that crime does not pay.<\/p>\n
While friends and relatives of the five men believe their loved ones were innocent victims who happened to the at the wrong place at the wrong time, leaders of community crime-fighting structures have painted a different picture.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m not even shocked that there are people who are accusing the police of killing innocent people, said the CPF member in Bester, Inanda.<\/p>\n
I\u2019m not even shocked that there are people who are accusing the police of killing innocent people, said the CPF member in Bester<\/p>\n
\u201cThose of us on the frontlines of fighting crime know that these guys were a menace. We hope this will send a stern message to other criminals that crime kills,\u201d he explained. <\/p>\n
He said among the deceased were those who had unleashed a reign of terror in the community.<\/p>\n
\u201cCPF members were some of the people they were targeting, calling us snitches. Two members of the crime-fighting structures were ambushed and shot at by them. They were walking home from a community meeting [at the time of the shooting].\u201d <\/p>\n
However, the brother of one of the deceased men said his sibling was innocent and happened to have been at the wrong place at the wrong time.<\/p>\n
\u201cAlthough I cannot say much about the other people who were killed, I know that my brother was not a criminal. He was surviving through piece jobs. Police killed an innocent man,\u201d the CPF member added.<\/p>\n
The five men, whose names has not been officially released by police, were cornered at a house in Bester, north of Durban.<\/p>\n
According to KwaZulu-Natal police spokesperson Col Robert Netshiunda, when police announced their presence, the men fired several rounds of ammunition towards them.<\/p>\n
\u201cPolice were left with no choice but to retaliate. Police have been looking for the suspects for quite some time for cases ranging from murder, attempted murder and house robberies. During the search inside the house, police recovered four firearms, which will be sent for ballistic tests,\u201d Netshiunda said. <\/p>\n
The deceased are alleged to have shot at police in November last year, which prompted them to go into hiding. <\/p>\n
Another CPF member told Sowetan that Bester was a haven for criminal gangs who torment residents.<\/p>\n
\u201cThese are young boys and I know some of them. At one stage I was called by the principal of one of the high schools in the area after they had robbed teachers at gunpoint. They were causing havoc. But as you would understand, all families would protect their own despite knowing that they were part of crime,\u201d he asserted.<\/p>\n
Meanwhile, the DA in the province said it would urgently brief parliament on the stalled rollout of police body-worn cameras, amid a growing number of murders of alleged suspects at the hands of police.<\/p>\n
\u201cOver the past few days alone, several police operations in the province have resulted in the deaths of suspects, raising serious concerns about transparency, accountability and the absence of independently verifiable evidence during lethal encounters,\u201d the party said yesterday. <\/p>\n
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