eNCA reports that police in KwaZulu-Natal (KZN) are searching for a man who shot and killed a police officer in cold blood in Durban on Wednesday.  Captain Bheki Simelane was killed just metres from his house in Phoenix.  

KZN police spokesperson Thembeka Mbhele said Simelane was accosted at 6:30 by an unknown man when he intended to board a taxi.  He was shot twice and died instantly.  According to an eye witness, immediately after that the assailant jumped into a red Polo that had stopped alongside and fled the scene.  A career policeman, Simelane was with the service for 35 years and was the spokesperson for the Point Police Station.  His colleagues have ruled out robbery as a motive, and believe it was a hit.  Mbhele said that “we suspect that he was just targeted either as a policeman or there are other reasons why and that is subject to investigation.”  The incident has sparked renewed concern about the increase in the number of attacks on officers in the province.  Simelane is the fourth policeman to be killed since January.

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