An off-duty KwaZulu-Natal police dog handler was shot dead on Tuesday night while playing snooker with friends in a tavern.
The killing of Sgt SC Radebe, who was stationed with the Umlazi K9 Unit, comes a day after two police dogs were shot and killed and a third injured while their handlers were tracking a gang of cop killers near Pietermaritzburg on Monday.
On Wednesday police spokesperson Col Brenda Muridili said Radebe, 34, was playing snooker with patrons in Cibane tavern when he was allegedly attacked by two men.
“One of the attackers fired several shots at Radebe. The two assailants fled the scene on foot. Radebe was rushed to hospital in a private vehicle where he was certified dead on arrival,” she said.
She said the police had launched a 72-hour activation plan to track down Radebe’s killers.
Radebe’s murder follows the shooting and killing of police dogs Simba and Shaka and the injury of Duke near Bishopstowe on Monday.
The three, together with their handlers, were tracking the alleged killers of Ndwedwe police station commander Lt-Col Jabulani Ndawonde, 55, in a sugarcane field when they were shot and killed while tackling the suspects.
Ndawonde was shot and killed in an ambush in Bhamshela in KwaZulu-Natal last month.
During the search for Ndawonde’s killers on Monday three suspects, including those who killed Simba and Shaka and injured Duke, were shot and killed by police.
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