A 35-year-old police sergeant based at the Pinelands radio control unit has implicated himself in the killing of five petrol attendants at a Shell filling station in Grassy Park in the early hours of Monday.
Community safety MEC, Leonard Ramatlakane, told a media briefing on Friday that the off-duty sergeant, who joined the service in 1990, was arrested in the Grassy Park area after police received a tip-off.
”People who commit acts like this have no place in the police service. The act must be seen as that of a lonely individual.”
The sergeant allegedly gunned down the attendants with his own private firearm.
All five were shot in the back of the head execution style.
Their bodies were found by a Nyanga detective who stopped at the service station along with his wife to make some purchases.
Ramatlakane said ”the said policeman who has heeded the call of breaking ranks with himself to inform the police about his dastardly action” will appear in the Wynberg Magistrates Court later on Friday.
Ramatlakane commended the police for their swift action as a clear demonstration that nobody was above the law.
”Whether one is a policeman, they are not above the law.”
Police commissioner Glen Schooling who was also at the briefing said the sergeant was the only one arrested but ”obviously we are keeping our options open”.
Schooling said the motive appeared to be armed robbery.
He said he was unable to comment on reports that the sergeant had a gambling problem.
Schooling declined to say where the sergeant lived except that he was from the area. – Sapa