“There’s a little incident downstairs.”
Incident: an instance of something happening; an event or occurrence.
E.g. “several amusing incidents”
There was nothing amusing about the ‘incident’.
Also, it wasn’t an incident.
It was a bloody (literally) armed robbery.
Not the curious incident of the dog in the nighttime.
When we set out to go to the gym, I hardly thought that doing cardio was life or death training. It was just something horrible I had to suffer through in order to drop a dress size. That’s how trivial my thought processes were on Sunday morning.
When the gym lady said, “There’s a little incident downstairs’, it did not, in any way, convey that a gang of 5 armed robbers were shooting at people.
So, we went downstairs.
And the pharmacy was closed.
So, we walked to another one.
That’s when the shooting started.
That’s was when the screaming started.
And the running.
Turns out that even when my legs feel like overcooked noodles, I can run quite quickly when the situation calls for it.
All the shops slammed the doors shut and watched the panicked masses run past, banging on the doors only to be denied entry.
We hung a right and dived into the Nespresso kiosk.
Hearts pounding, we tried to catch our breath and not panic.
In fact, the lack of panic was quite strange. We were all very calm – eerily calm.
Hanging a right turned out to be an extremely beneficial decision. The robbers went left. A split second choice that could have ended quite differently.
As we made it out of the danger zone we met someone we knew.
“What’s going on?” she asked.
“There’s an armed robbery and shooting.”
“But, can I go to Woolworths?”
“Um. No. It’s all locked down.”
“But, I just want pick up some groceries.”
Silence, as we absorbed this.
“Well, this is very inconvenient.”
Yeah, it was for us too.
Also, I imagine for the security guard who was shot and the robber who was killed, the other who was injured and the three who got away.
In mitigation, sometimes in such a dire situation you cling to the mundane like a small piece of driftwood in a tsunami.
One upside from being denied entry into the stores, was that we managed to extricate ourselves pretty quickly from the chaos. Unlike the shoppers who found themselves locked in for the next 3 hours and who had to step over the discarded AK47s and the body.
As we sat in the corner of the Nespresso kiosk, all I could think was, “How very American”. It’s not really, but shootings seem to have made it into mass culture as an American thing. I didn’t even realise I had this stereotype until that moment. It all seems far too close to home for comfort, and I live in a city that competes annually for ‘Murder capital of the world’.
We arrived home.
I opened a bottle of wine.
And I drank it.
I don’t even like wine.
It gives me heartburn.
But, not nearly as much as being caught up in a jewelry heist.
“Gauteng police have launched a manhunt after armed men stormed a jewellery store in Bedford Centre in Johannesburg on Sunday afternoon. In an ensuing shootout with mall security, one suspect was killed.
According to Community Policing Forum chairperson, Gavin Henry, five men entered the shopping centre holding AK47 firearms when a security guard spotted them and raised the alarm.
“One of the entrance guards noticed them entering with their weapons and called in on the radio an armed robbery. One of the tactical guys responded and they started shooting at him first. He returned fire and the rest fled,” Henry explained.
Police spokesperson Brigadier Mathapelo Peters said the suspect was declared dead on the scene.
“One security officer was rushed to hospital after he was allegedly hit by one of the suspects as the latter fled the scene,” she added. She said the suspects made off in two vehicles and [took] some watches. It’s unclear at this stage what the make and the value of the watches are.
“Police recovered on the scene a rifle – AK47 – with two loaded magazines. The firearm will be subjected to ballistic testing for further investigation,” Peters said.
In the video, which was posted on the Facebook group Intelligence Bureau SA, shots suddenly go off as people can be heard screaming in the background.
No other fatalities have been reported besides but some shoppers were treated for shock.”
The Blurred Line 