South African police officers who killed a suspected robber
by shooting him in the head as he lay on the ground have handed
themselves in after a surveillance video of the act was broadcast, the
police said. The footage released over the weekend by The Sunday Times
newspaper shows a uniformed member of the South African Police Service
(SAPS) shoot the unidentified man in the head at point blank range after
he had been shot in the shoulder and chest.
The suspect was already lying on the pavement after the bullet to his
shoulder felled him as he fled from the police, the video showed as
blood from the man’s head formed a pool on the pavement shortly after
the shots to the chest and head. “They have handed themselves in and we
arrested them, three males and a female.
‘’They are facing charges of murder, but we might add other charges,”
Independent Police Investigative Directorate (IPID) spokeswoman, Grace
Langa, said. Langa said the officers would remain in custody overnight
despite the officers’ pleas for the process to be expedited, so they can
appear before a Magistrates’ Court on Tuesday.
“They were stressed, they were requesting the investigators to allow
them appear in court earlier, but there is no special treatment,” Langa
said. South Africa remains beset by high levels of violent crime blamed
on high unemployment and the lingering effects of apartheid.
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