A pen­sion­er who was at­tacked and beat­en with a wheel span­ner in an at­tempt­ed rob­bery in San­ta Cruz ear­ly yes­ter­day, turned the ta­bles on his at­tack­ers, when he used his li­censed firearm, killing two and send­ing a third in­to hid­ing

While the botched rob­bery has left res­i­dents of La Pas­to­ra Road wary, the hand­ful who spoke with re­porters de­scribed the res­i­den­tial area as “qui­et,” and said the in­ci­dent high­light­ed the need for the pro­posed stand-your-ground leg­is­la­tion to be­come a re­al­i­ty.

Po­lice said the 66-year-old vic­tim stopped at the spring near Zain­ool Mustapha Dri­ve around 5.45 am to wash his white Maz­da BT50 pick­up, as he was ac­cus­tomed to do­ing dai­ly.