KWALUSENI SHOOTOUT: GUNMEN LEAVE BEHIND 41 LIVE ROUNDS

MANZINI – The gunmen left behind 41 live rounds of ammunition in their shootout with the police on Monday night at Kwaluseni.

The shootout resulted in three law enforcers being admitted to the Raleigh Fitkin Memorial (RFM) Hospital as they were shot in various parts of their upper bodies. It has been gathered that a female police officer, who was part of the security detail, was shot in the head and near the neck, while one of the males was injured on the shoulder blade and leg and the other had a bullet lodged in his chest. The shooting happened just after 8pm on Monday, at Kwaluseni, when the officers had just left OK Foods where they  had rendered their services in assisting in the closure of the supermarket for the business of the day.

Shot

The police officers were shot at while in transit in a white Toyota Hilux GD6, about 30 seconds after leaving OK Foods, Kwaluseni. The shooting, which resulted in their vehicle being parked in the middle of the road, about 150 metres from the complex, due to heavy gunfire, was said to have been well orchestrated. It has been gathered that the four gunmen, who had taken cover next to the market stalls at Eposini, along the Ndlunganye – University of Eswatini Public Road, left the live rounds of ammunition when the shootout intensified. According to sources, they (gunmen) had to retreat and flee from the scene after a pair, who had approached the vehicle which was transporting the police officers, had shots aimed at them by one of the officers.

The sources said the pair was suspected to have approached the vehicle with the assumption that the law enforcers had been hit by the bullets after shooting at the police car several times on the windshield and windows. It was gathered that as they approached the vehicle, an officer who was carrying an R4 assault rifle was also raising his head in an effort to establish if the gunmen were still in the vicinity. The sources supposed that when he saw the pair approaching, despite being injured on the shoulder, he aimed and fired at them, resulting in the gunmen retreating. “I suspect that one of the gunmen was injured in the shootout as they were close when the police officer started firing shots at them,” a source said.

The source claimed that as the police officer retaliated and tried to alight from the stationary motor vehicle, he was shot in the leg. However, the gunmen, according to the source, were already fleeing the scene and in the moment, they left behind about 41 live rounds of ammunition. The source said the live rounds of ammunition were for an assault rifle, which was used by the State security forces. Chief Police Information and Communications Officer Superintendent Phindile Vilakati confirmed that 41 bullets were recovered from the scene. On the question of whether they belonged to one of the State security agencies, Vilakati said: “Investigations are still ongoing.” It is worth noting that the evidence collected is said to have exceeded 30 cartridges which, according to sources, were from different assault rifles.

Scattered

The shells were scattered on the tarmac and also collected near the market stalls, wherein the four gunmen were said to have been positioned when targeting the law enforcers. Yesterday, this publication reported that eyewitnesses said the gunmen were set to assassinate the law enforcers during the shootout. It is a known fact that following the political upheavals experienced in the country since last year June and also the random assassination of security personnel, police officers carry R4 assault rifles to defend themselves from any threats targeting them. An onlooker on Tuesday informed this publication that the shooting lasted for about 10 minutes. He said the four gunmen started shooting at the police car just after it went through the speed humps. The witness supposed that they wanted to kill every person in the car.

He said it was after the retaliation of one police officer that the shots fired by the suspects ricocheted from a distance before fading away altogether. The onlooker suspected that when the officer  retaliated, the gunmen started to flee the scene on foot. The eyewitness said there was a high probability that the gunmen boarded their getaway vehicles along the road as the creeping darkness of the night afforded them an opportunity to escape without being easily noticed.

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