Six males, suspected to be members of an extortionist gang, were slain in an early morning shootout with police in KwaZulu-Natal.
The men are tied to a series of murders in the province. Colonel Robert Netshiunda, a provincial police spokeswoman, said cops arrived at an apartment block in South Beach, Durban’s Point district, shortly before midnight on Monday.
The deceased were drinking beer on the side of the road when armed men arrived with handguns and a rifle.
They ordered the seated men to lie down and shot them in the back of the head.
“Police were tracing suspects who shot five people, and k!lled four of them execution-style on Siyaphambili Road in Tshelimnyama in Mariannhill on Sunday night,” he said.
The suspects are also related to a triple homicide in Hammarsdale, in which three men were gunned down outside a tuck shop.
“They were also linked with a Friday evening robbery at a shop on the ground floor of the apartment they were found in. It is also suspected that the suspects were involved in the illicit drug trade,” Netshiunda said.
Netshiunda stated that police obtained information that the suspects were hiding in Newlands East and went to the area; however, additional investigation revealed that the suspects were living in a leased holiday flat in South Beach.
