WARNING: This is Version 1 of my old archive, so Photos will NOT work and many links will NOT work. But you can find articles by searching on the Titles. There is a lot of information in this archive. Use the SEARCH BAR at the top right. Prior to December 2012; I was a pro-Christian type of Conservative. I was unaware of the mass of Jewish lies in history, especially the lies regarding WW2 and Hitler. So in here you will find pro-Jewish and pro-Israel material. I was definitely WRONG about the Boeremag and Janusz Walus. They were for real.
Original Post Date: 2008-12-15 Time: 09:00:08 Posted By: Jan
Allegations of police brutality are being levelled against a covert intelligence assault team whose members allegedly shot a disarmed suspected robber moments after he was arrested.
The alleged robber, who had earlier been wielding an R4 semi-automatic rifle, along with four other suspects, armed with 9mm pistols, were caught shortly before they could attack an embassy in Pretoria last week.
While police claim the shooting was “justified”, an eyewitness, Pretoria News reporter Barry Bateman, tells a different story.
Bateman was driving past the Engen garage in Rigel Avenue when he saw police arresting the suspects.
“I watched officers use excessive and unwarranted force against the suspects, who had already been subdued and detained.
“A police officer shot a prone suspect in the leg moments after having detonated a stun grenade centimetres from his head,” said Bateman, adding that the police then “strangely” released a red smoke grenade which obscured the scene.
Police are adamant, however, that the force used to subdue the suspects in last Thursday’s foiled heist was “justified”.
Their crime intelligence spokesperson, Senior Superintendent Tummi Golding, said: “The suspect was shot after police repeatedly ordered him to put down the gun, which was an R4 semi-automatic assault rifle.
“He was standing outside the car in an ‘action with intention to fire’ position and when he cocked the gun a police officer, from the covert assault group, responded quicker than the suspect and shot him in the leg.”
She said: “You cannot take a chance and wait to see if the suspect is going to fire. These are extremely dangerous people. They are cold-blooded criminals who think nothing of killing law-abiding citizens and we cannot act leniently against them.
“The shooting was absolutely justifiable,” she said, adding, when asked, that smoke and stun grenades were used in a variety of situations depending on the nature of the operation and the situations as they unfolded.
Golding said a report on the incident, which would include a shooting report, was being compiled.
She said the report, along with a forensic report, would indicate, among other things, whether the suspect was shot while lying down, at close range, running away or at a distance.
Asked if departmental steps would be taken against the officer, Golding said she could not say.
“Several other steps have to take place first before a departmental proceeding is instituted. A forensic report must be compiled and its conclusion must show whether the man was shot while lying down or not.
“Depending on the forensic report’s results the justice department will say whether our member was in the wrong or not.
“If he is found to have been in the wrong, internal disciplinary measures will be taken.”
When asked if CCTV footage of the arrest could be viewed, Golding declined.
“The footage was placed into evidence bags shortly after the incident and cannot now be opened until the court case.”
The gang, two of whose members were policemen, was ambushed at a petrol station in Erasmusrand by the national crime intelligence’s covert collection directorate’s assault team minutes before they could attack a cash van due to collect an estimated R1-million from an embassy in Waterkloof.
Intelligence agents had been investigating the gang, who were believed to be responsible for a spate of deadly cash-in-transit heists across the country over the past eight months, and had followed them from their hideout in Midrand to Pretoria where other officers lay in wait.
The two cars the suspects were driving when they were arrested had apparently been stolen in separate hijackings in Johannesburg.
It is believed their owners were shot.
One of the guns recovered was stolen during a Centurion house robbery, while another belonged to one of the policemen.
It is not the first time the assault team has made headlines.
In July, a bloodbath was narrowly averted when Pretoria flying squad members surrounded intelligence operatives outside a Wonderboom guesthouse moments after mistaking them for a gang of robbers who had apparently shortly before stormed a nearby late-night supermarket.
After an hour of police officers threatening to shoot each other the situation was defused.
Days later allegations of police brutality from several Mamelodi and Atteridgeville residents emerged after the assault team allegedly roughed up people while they were “hunting down” suspected criminals.
Bateman’s assertions were backed by many Pretoria police officers who claim the assault team is a law unto itself.
“They bend the rules to suit themselves,” said an officer.