Police investigate road rage attempted shooting
Pini Bothoko | Tuesday August 8, 2017 15:49
In an interview with Mmegi, Borakanelo police station commander, superintendent Mothusi Phadi said they are holding a 26-year-old man in custody for threatening to shoot a police officer in a road rage incident on Sunday.
He said that the incident occurred in the early hours of Sunday around 01:40am.
Phadi said the police officer reported the matter to the police, stating that the cars in a road rage were a BMW and a Honda Fit.
He revealed that the BMW had two occupants whilst the Honda fit had three occupants - two men and a woman.
“The suspect, who is an employee of One Man Journey Investments was a passenger in a Honda Fit car, which was driven by a prison warden,” Phadi said.
He added: “That early morning, we traced the two cars up and at around 4am we managed to locate the suspects. All of the five suspects are aged between 25 and 26 years,” Phadi said.
He said both drivers of the BMW and Honda Fit cars were sober, hence not knowing what influenced their bad driving skills.
Phadi said the police officer pulled over his car to question the suspects about their bad driving and they got into a verbal altercation leading to the 26-year-old pulling out a gun and pointing it at the police officer.
“The incident occurred down the fly-over into Nelson Mandela road by the intersection of that road with Molepolole road.
When searching the suspects, the police retrieved a pellet gun from the 26-year-old man, the same person who had earlier on pointed the same gun at the officer.
The suspect is currently in police custody with investigations into the matter still ongoing,” Phadi said. Asked the possible charge that the suspect may face, Phadi said he might be charged with a common nuisance offence.
He said bad driving is an offence and both drivers face possible charges of road rage offences.
Phadi raised a concern that the driver of the Honda Fit, a prison warder, failed to restrain his passenger.
“I am worried that the same person who should help us fight crime was the one who was driving badly and failed to stop his companion for such bad behaviour,” Phadi said.
He pointed out that even though his pellet gun is legal, it is not advisable for one to go around carrying it, especially at night.
He pointed out that cases of armed robbery cases are on the rise in Gaborone in which pellet guns were used.