THE Chadcombe family that was held hostage by five armed robbers at gun point described the experience as horrific.
The family was rescued by the father of the house, Harare
lawyer and former CID detective Joseph Nemaisa, who gunned down three of the
five robbers in a fierce exchange. He had been tipped by his son that the
family was being held hostage.
The incident took place from Monday evening into the early
hours of Tuesday.
Nemaisa was not at home at the time the armed men broke
into the house. However, his son Courage (18) noticed the robbers after they
broke in and managed to make a short p[hone call to his father before the
robbers force-marched him to fish out his hiding mother.
Nemaisa, who is now a lawyer, reacted swiftly and arrived
from Mandara at the scene within 10 minutes.
H-Metro visited the scene and spoke to Nemaisa’s wife
Fadzanai Musarurwa who was held at gun point by the robbers before seeing three
of them shot dead.
“The incident occurred around 9pm and when they arrived,
they banged the door twice since the door was locked.
“I realised something was wrong when they banged the door
the second time so I went into the bathroom and locked the door.
“They demanded that I come out of the bathroom and they
were holding Courage, my son hostage while demanding that I come out.
“Fortunately, Courage had managed to call his dad before
they saw him. They tied us up and ordered us to lie down before demanding
money,” she said.
Fadzanai said she calmly complied with the orders.
“I gave them USD$850 but they wanted more and all the
children were tied. I did not see their faces since they were wearing masks.
“I was confused during that moment and I did not see much,”
she added.
Fadzanai said she did not have any more money in the house
but the masked robbers did not believe her so they started ransacking the
house.
When they failed to find money, they decided to load
clothes into bags to make away with the loot.
The robbers thought they had time, unaware of the fact that
Courage had called Nemaisa.
Nemaisa got to the house and observed what was happening
from outside. He reportedly fired a warning shot which sent the robbers into
panic but they did not surrender. Instead they started shooting through the
windows not knowing where Nemaisa was located.
Nemaisa was, however, more calculated and took them out one
by one until he ran out of ammunition.
Fadzanai said three of the robbers were shot without
knowing who was firing at them.
“They were in panic when they realised that they were being
shot by someone they were not seeing.
“Magetsi anga achangobva kuuya and I had told Courage to
switch off the generator but the robbers arrived before he could go out.”
The woman said the remaining robbers were afraid to move
within the house and the forced her and her children to search the dead and get
their guns.
“I was forced to search the dead bodies since they wanted
to see what was in their pockets. They were looking for a pistol. All my
curtains, windows were destroyed and my grade seven child was traumatised since
he was forced to take a gun from a dead robber,” said Fadzanai.
After running out of ammunition, Nemaisa tip-toed out of
the premises to look for backup at Hatfield Police Station.
0 comments:
Post a Comment