Motive unclear in VIP cop murder case

The Ipid has not established what led a Presidential Protection Services officer to repeatedly shoot his daughter and wife.

|||

Pretoria - The Independent Police Investigative Directorate (Ipid) has not established what led a police officer, attached to the elite Presidential Protection Services at the Union Buildings, to run amok and repeatedly shoot his daughter and wife in Pretoria, Ipid spokesperson Grace Langa said on Monday.

“It’s still early, you know. This just happened on Saturday. We don’t have the details but as we continue with the investigation, we will know the motive,” Langa told reporters outside court soon after the policeman was remanded in custody.

“We really don’t know. Some of the witnesses are still traumatised [and] they still have to attend counselling. We have to give them time to heal. So far we don’t have much [in terms of] statements, except from a neighbour,” she said.

The 46-year-old suspect cannot be named until he has pleaded in court. The officer apparently approached the neighbour, after the shooting and requested to be driven to the police station.

Langa said the policeman fired four shots, two hitting his 42-year-old wife and the other two hitting his 23-year-old daughter at close range. The incident happened at the officer’s residence in Pretoria West.

The officer appeared in the Pretoria Magistrate’s Court on Monday morning facing double murder charges.

“It is alleged the couple had disagreements in the morning before the officer left for his cousin’s funeral arrangement, and when he returned home in the evening, it is alleged [that] he asked his wife to cook for him,” Langa said earlier.

While the wife was cooking, the officer allegedly went to another room where he fetched a firearm and went back to shoot his wife and their daughter, said Langa.

After killing the two, he put his service pistol back in the safe and took his 17-year-old son and his nephew, who were also in the house at the time, to his neighbour. He asked the neighbour to drive him to the police station, where he was arrested immediately.

The accused was remanded in custody until September 21 for a formal bail application.

Langa said the Ipid would oppose bail.

“We are opposing, and will still oppose bail. We feel this is serious. We don’t know whether he has grudges with whoever [it may be]. We do not know what led to this. We cannot just let him have access to more people,” she said.

The officer’s 17-year-old son was now in the custody of his late mother’s relatives.

ANA