Grahamstown police have new leads in a payday robbery and shootout.
Grahamstown police have new leads in a payday robbery and shootout.
The city centre robbery followed by a shootout in Joza on 31 October left a security company vehicle and homes in the area riddled with bullets.
Police said the breakthrough came when an off-duty policeman found the Mercedes Benz used by the armed robbers in Joza, a week after the robbery.
Grahamstown police spokesperson Captain Milanda Coetzer said in a media statement that around 2pm on Friday 7 November an off-duty police man living in Joza noticed the vehicle parked across the road from his home.
"Closer inspection revealed that the description matched that of the Mercedes used in a robbery in Grahamstown a week earlier," Coetzer said.
A man was assaulted in the payday robbery on Friday 31 October.
Coetzer said Detective Sergeant Nathan Gabriel was dispatched to Joza with fingerprint experts from the Grahamstown Local Criminal Record Centre.
"The vehicle was towed and an exhaustive search was made in and around the vehicle," she said. After further investigation police received a description of two of the men, who remain at large. Coetzer said two identikits have been drawn, based on descriptions given by eye witnesses.
Coetzer asked Eastern Cape residents in particular to be on the lookout for the pair. She asked members of the public to look at the identikits and make contact with Gabriel at 082 3019 071 should they recognise the identikit faces. However, the police have warned that the men are in all probability still armed. They have warned members of the public not to confront the men.
