A shoot out on Alexandra’s East Bank. A couple of bad guys hit a business in nearby Kew then high tailed to a flat on South Africa Boulevard. The problem, the flying squad were right behind and they soon had the place surrounded.

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The baddies tried to duck out the back door only to run into a female constable who opened up with her R5 assault rifle. One robber died, another injured and two arrested, a police success story.

East Bank is the plush part of Alex, with newly built townhouses. But it is still crime ridden Alex where

the locals drive black cars, wear their jewellery over their shirts and know the dead guy by name.

So there we were standing at the edge of the yellow tape, me and the SABC journalist, trying to pump intel from the police spokeswoman lieutenant colonel Katlego Mogale.

“Where was the injured guy shot?” Asks the SABC journalist.

“In the arms and legs,” says Mogale.

“You mean he was shot in both arms and legs”? I ask.

Mogale gives me one of those I am talking to stupid stares.

“Yes.”

“Were the police trying to disable him, so they shoot him in the leg?” Questions the SABC journalist.

“Then he is hopping away, so they shoot him in his other leg,” I say.

The SABC journalist laughs and so do I.

The colonel’s is no longer talking to stupid, there is a frown.

“Then he is dragging himself along with his arms, so they shoot him in his arm,” says  I.

We howl with laughter. A few photographers and journos snap us funny looks.

“Hahaha, then…, “says the SABC journo,….th th… then he is still moving, so they shoot him in the other arm.”

We laugh, it is belly laughter time, just the two of us, cackling away on the other side of the yellow tape.