Weekend Argus (Saturday Edition)
Guard killed near spot where he shot robbers
A SECURITY guard who shot dead two suspected robbers during a car chase from a Kraaifontein shopping complex six years ago was this week killed outside the same hub of shops.
In a reverse of the action of six years ago, robbers shot Hennie Jacobs in the parking area of the Brighton Square complex late on Thursday. He died on the scene. Police are searching for the gunmen.
Jacobs, in his sixties and who had worked at the complex for about two decades, was carrying money from the Tops bottle store to the Spar about 50m away when the robbers attacked him.
Yesterday Douw Holtzhausen, the owner of the Spar, said counselling was being organised for his trauma- tised staff.
He said the Spar had opened 21 years ago and Jacobs had worked at the complex since then.
“(Jacobs) was very loyal to his job. Everyone called him Oom Hennie. He was always there. He always went the extra mile.”
Holtzhausen said Jacobs was carrying money from the Tops to the store before 9pm on Thursday when he was approached by the gunmen.
“They walked up to him and shot him in the head. They took the money.”
He said it was not clear how much money the robbers had escaped with.
“It’s a terrible thing to happen,” Holtzhausen said, adding that some customers had been in the Spar when the shooting happened.
Holtzhausen said a witness to the shooting was going through CCTV footage from 48 cameras to see if the gunmen had been in the Spar earlier.
Yesterday police spokesman Lieutenant Colonel Andre Traut confirmed the murder without naming Jacobs.
He said six gunmen had managed to escape, and that no arrests had yet been made.
Holtzhausen said Thursday’s shooting was the second time Jacobs had had a brush with gunmen.
In January 2009 another incident took place, starting at the Brighton Square parking area.
Holtzhausen said Jacobs had been on duty, and noticed the number plate of a blue car matched that of a car that was believed to have been used in a robbery the previous day.
In a newspaper report from days after the January 2009 incident, Jacobs was quoted as saying he had seen the car speed off as a police van approached.
He then got his shotgun and told a colleague they could try to cut the car off. But while they were searching for it in nearby streets, a bakkie nearly hit them, then sped off.
Jacobs and his colleague followed the bakkie, believing it was linked to the blue car, and its occupants started shooting.
The bakkie then stopped, and the occupants jumped out and fled, with Jacobs in pursuit. He jumped on to the bonnet of the bakkie, from where he shot at the men. Two were killed and the third was wounded.
Jacobs was quoted as saying: “It wasn’t about killing them, it was about survival.”
He said he felt for the families of those he had killed.
“I’m not very religious, but when I pray to whatever God tonight, I will ask that he look after the relatives of the men I killed. They were after all someone’s son, brother or father,” Jacobs was quoted as saying.