A man who held two small children hostage on a farm near Gonubie in East London has been shot and killed by a policeman.
The Independent Police Investigative Directorate said the drama unfolded on Geluksdal Farm in Brakfontein on Saturday when the deceased allegedly assaulted and killed another man following an argument.
According to a police statement the 45-year-old “farm owner” was with his friend and his wife and two children, who were temporary residents, when the men got into a heated argument.
“The argument escalated into a physical fight which moved outside the house onto the deck,” said police spokesperson, Captain Hazel Mqala.
“The farm owner assaulted his 40-year- old friend with his fists and with a rifle butt, resulting in the victim sustaining severe head injuries" and "had passed on", she said.
Mqala said that numerous phone calls were made by the farm owner requesting help from neighbouring farmers, who in turn notified Bluewater and Gonubie saps.
She said when police arrived on the scene the farm owner allegedly made threatening remarks and at that stage had “taken the friends' children hostage and locked them in the bathroom.”
Mqala said after a Warrant Officer “interviewed” the farm owner another police member went to the bathroom and removed the two boys, aged two weeks and two years old.
She said while the officer went outside to hand the children to their mother, the man allegedly attacked his partner resulting in a struggle and the policeman firing “one shot from his firearm in self-defense”, fatally wounding the attacker.
The policeman suffered a “fractured nose, jaw and face” and was receiving medical attention.
The identities of both deceased have not yet been released.
