HARARE – A former CID detective shot and killed three armed men who stormed his home and held his family hostage during a robbery on Monday night, police said.

Joseph Nemaisa, who left law enforcement for a career as a lawyer, received a distress call from his Chadcombe home in Harare after his wife, brother-in-law and son were accosted by five balaclava-wearing thugs armed with an AK47 rifle and pistols.

Nemaisa, police said, raced home and took on the thugs in a gun battle that ended with three of the raiders dead, while two escaped through a bedroom window and fled.

The brave former detective inspector at CID Homicide Harare said: “I’m safe, my wife and kids are safe too. My house is all blood. I thank the Almighty for the skill and courage.”

Police said Nemaisa’s wife, Fadzanai, arrived home at around 8.45PM and noticed three men walking near their home. She drove in and closed the gate.

Moments later, as she sat with her family in their lounge, she heard her dogs barking and she instructed her brother Masimba Musarurwa to lock the main door.

“As he was locking the door, there was someone who was trying to force it open,” a police spokesman said.

Nemaisa’s son, Courage, reportedly called his father to let him know someone was trying to break-in.

“The whole family then retreated to their bedrooms and Fadzanai went into the toilet where she locked herself from inside. The robbers forced open the main door to the house using crow bars and screw drivers. Upon entering the house, the five unknown accused persons assaulted everyone in the rooms, forced them to lie down and demanded to see Fadzanai who decided to come out of the toilet and she was also assaulted.”

Police said two of the men were armed with rifles, including an AK47.

Fadzanai handed the men US$850. The robbers ransacked the house and also stole a mobile phone, a laptop and a shot gun.

Nemaisa arrived as the robbers were about to leave and engaged the five in a gun battle that would leave three dead.

Police said the two who survived searched the pockets of the dead men and grabbed their particulars including mobile phones and also collected their firearms before escaping through a bedroom window and jumping over the precast wall.