The Independent Complaints Directorate (ICD) is investigating a policeman who allegedly shot dead 45-year-old Jeanette Odendaal outside the Kempton Park police station, its spokesperson said on Wednesday.
“He was arrested by the ICD last night [Tuesday]. He had heard a noise outside and a lady had bumped into a police car. He took a firearm and went outside and shot the woman,” said ICD spokesperson Moses Dlamini.
He said a car guard witnessed the incident outside the police station on Tuesday evening around 8.30pm.
“It is alleged that a car guard saw a white Golf collide with a stationary police vehicle, which was parked outside the police station.
“The car guard then ran into the police station to report the accident. It is alleged that a sergeant came out of the police station and shot 45-year-old Jeanette Odendaal in the upper body,” said Dlamini.
Apparently the policeman thought the noise of the crash was a gun shot.
She was still inside the car when she was shot.
“By the time paramedics arrived at the scene, Ms Odendaal was already dead. It is not clear at this stage what the deceased was doing at the police station,” said Dlamini.
A post mortem would be conducted on Thursday.
The sergeant will appear in the Kempton Park Magistrate’s Court on Friday, and not Thursday as was initially reported.
It was unclear if there was an argument between the two, and if the woman had come to report a crime.
Gauteng police spokesperson Lieutenant Colonel Tshisikhawe Ndou said in a statement: “The suspect subsequently shot the victim dead and he was immediately arrested. It is still unknown what prompted the shooting.”
The ICD was called to the scene to investigate.
National police commissioner General Bheki Cele on Tuesday said the country’s 8Â 500 crowd control police officers would get a refresher course in handling protests.
The decision followed several recent incidents of police brutality that were reported including the death of protester Andries Tatane.
Tatane was beaten to death allegedly at the hands of eight police officers during a service delivery protest in Ficksburg in the Free State on April 13.
A video of his death was broadcast on national television.
Dlamini said two similar police brutality cases had been before two KwaZulu-Natal courts on Tuesday.
One was in Greytown, where five policemen allegedly strangled a person in custody while the other case, in Hammersdale, involved 15 policemen who alleged beat a suspect, who later died. — Sapa