Cop killer locked up as Hawks reel in three robbers

"One criminal will no longer pose any danger to ordinary people on the streets."

These are the words of Lieutenant-General Godfrey Lebeya, national head of the Hawks, who on Thursday applauded a life sentence served on a cop killer/ATM robber.

Constable Baliki Mogapi, 33, was shot in the head when he and a partner from the Hartbeesfontein SAPS in the North West responded to an alarm that went off at an FNB ATM in 2016.

The two officers had arrived on the scene to see the security vehicle of a local security company parked nearby. They approached the vehicle to speak to the security guard, "however, the vehicle had been taken over by the suspects, who had tied up the security guard", said police.

Bathobile Colesto Khohliso, 36, "alighted from the security vehicle and fired a single shot,"which hit Constable Mogapi.

His partner fired a single shot in the direction of the fleeing assailant. A manhunt by the Hawks’ Priority Violent Crimes unit and the provincial Tactical Response Team led to the arrest of seven suspects in and around Pretoria and Katlehong. Two pistols and two vehicles were also seized. Charges were dropped against the six other suspects.

Khohliso was jailed on Wednesday by the high court, sitting in Klerksdorp. 

Meanwhile, two suspects implicated in a cash-in-transit robbery in Parow, Cape Town, were each sentenced to eight years' imprisonment after their sentencing by the Bellville Regional Court on Wednesday. Their sentence will be reduced by the time they have spent incarcerated since 2016, said Hawks spokesperson Captain Philani Nkwalase.

Senzo Ponoyi, 28, and Nkosiphendule Khanyana, 35, attacked a G4S security guard at the Parow Shopping Centre who had just collected money from the mall.

After grabbing the money box, they fled on foot.

However, "during their getaway, they dropped the cash box after it exploded".