Firearms clerk blazes away in police station

A clerk at a Johannesburg police station has shot himself dead afternoon after killing a captain and critically wounding the station commander.

An emotional Gauteng police commissioner Mzwandile Petros said last night the commander of the Rosebank police station was fighting for her life in hospital.

"At 3.45pm, there was an incident with a member that came to the station shot the station commander and also at the captain. The captain didn't make it."

Petros declined to name the station commander, the captain or the clerk.

He said the station commander was being operated on at the Milpark Hospital.

"The last time I spoke to the doctor she said she was in theatre, she is in a critical condition as we speak."

Police Minister Nathi Mthethwa arrived at the police station last night.

He shed tears as he spoke to the media, saying the clerk was in charge of the police station's firearms.

"He is not just a member, he was working here and has been taken through a disciplinary hearing for wrongdoings. He was found guilty [of mishandling firearms] and he was about to be dismissed," Mthethwa said.

"He was a member who was responsible for guarding firearms at this police station. Mishandling that very area which he was responsible for... he has been found guilty. If we are not strict at that level we . find firearms falling into wrong hands."

Mthethwa said the clerk's use of a firearm on his colleagues revealed the extent to which he was guilty of the offences for which he was going to be dismissed.

Petros said: "The firearm takes 15 [bullets] and the firearm was empty. We don't know how many [shots were fired], but what we can tell you is that the firearm is empty."

The service pistol would go for ballistics testing.

Mthethwa said it was a tragedy that while police officers were dying at the hands of criminals, they were also killing each other.

About 56 police officers have been killed on duty this year.

"It's a tragedy. Some of these things you can't plan for prior to them happening. In this case, all hell broke loose when the member understood what the verdict was," he said.

"What is particularly disturbing is that both the station commander and the captain are ladies. So he came here and actually shot at two ladies."

Petros said the names of the deceased would be released once their families were informed.