Lieutenant du Plooy led his men around the bend, carefully keeping them behind cover, then sent Coey out into the open riverbed to give treatment. With his Red Cross flag clearly visible, Coey came out from cover and made for the bodies on the ground. The concealed cadres immediately opened fire and fatally shot him through the head. His lifeless body fell at du Plooy's feet. Coey was the first American fatality of the Rhodesian Bush War. The contact in which he died eventually ended with du Plooy and two other Rhodesians being wounded and a further Rhodesian soldier, Corporal Jannie de Beer, being killed. The insurgents escaped without any further loss to their number.
