Cape Town – The 40-year-old man who shot dead two patients and one police officer at Cape Town’s New Somerset Hospital on Saturday is reportedly an ex-cop.
According to IOL, the shooter is a former cop from Hopefield in the Western Cape. He was dismissed in 2006/7.
The reasons for his dismissal remain unknown.
The shooter disarmed a Sea Point police officer, Constable Donay Phillips, who was transporting a suspect to the hospital for medical treatment.
He shot him as well as two other patients.
ALSO READ: Man, 40, grabs police firearm, shoots him and two other patients dead at Somerset Hospital
Constable Phillips was seriously injured while the patients died on the scene. Phillips was taken to the hospital but died as a result of his injuries, according to a police statement.
One of the victims he shot was from Piketberg, while the other had no known address and was assumed to be homeless.
The shooter was arrested on the scene. The motive behind the shooting is still unknown.
“The disregard for life is deplorable. It is gut-wrenching that an officer should lose his life in this manner. We regard an attack on the police as a direct attack on us all, and this cannot become the norm,” IOL quoted Provincial Minister of Community Safety and Police Oversight, Reagen Allen as saying.
Follow African Insider on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram
Picture: Pexels
For more African news, visit Africaninsider.com
Compiled by Sinothando Siyolo
