This is wrong what is going on with our Police?
A Pretoria sound engineer - who hours before had helped South Africa bring the World Cup final to the world - was gunned down by police as he allegedly drove headlong into the city's early morning rush-hour traffic.Nkosinathi Ntuli, 23, who was killed because he was allegedly cheeky to police officers and had apparently "dared" them to shoot him, was shot dead in Marabastad yesterday morning with his Fifa accreditation clearly dangling around his neck.
The rising star, who colleagues described as one of the country's greatest sound engineers, was returning home on Monday after helping the world witness the closing of Africa's first World Cup at Soccer City when he was killed by police driving an unmarked state car.
Ntuli, who moonlighted as a DJ, was killed on the corner of Boom and Cowie streets close to where four Pretoria railway policemen had cornered him.
He was confronted by the Soshanguve and Atteridgeville policemen as they drove down Boom Street to their headquarters in Pretorius Street.
It is believed Ntuli, who some officers have alleged was drunk, took a wrong turn and narrowly avoided crashing into the policemen and several motorists.
The policemen, pursuing the unarmed Ntuli, eventually forced him to stop on the corner of Boom and Cowie streets.
Sources said Ntuli was shot moments after he drove off from where he had been stopped and had allegedly dared the policemen to shoot him.
The policemen shot his champagne-coloured Toyota RunX six times, hitting his car's left rear wheel, back left window, rear window and boot.
The fatally wounded Ntuli lost control of his vehicle and crashed through the wall of a scrap dealership before his car hit a scrapped vehicle and briefly caught alight.
As his killers pulled his body from his car his Fifa accreditation card could be seen around his neck.
While forensic investigators cordoned off and photographed the scene and Ntuli's body, lying sprawled in the dirt, his mother, Elizabeth, broke down in tears.
Demanding answers from police as officers lifted Ntuli's body, with his yellow Bafana Bafana shirt showing underneath a jacket, into a mortuary gurney, Elizabeth Ntuli said she would never forgive the police for what they had done.
"If he was such a threat why did they not use other methods to stop him? Why did they not block off roads so he could not escape?"
Ntuli said she could not understand why her son had been killed.
"This is not right. He didn't even have a gun. Surely they could have done something else to stop him?
This I am afraid is what happens when the shoot to kill order is bandied around by the top brass there is no accountability. Lets see what the excuse is going to be on this one at no time was a police officer threatened and no weapon was displayed or even on the person so what was the motive to shoot him?
ReplyDeleteWhat is happening to our country? How do you kill an unarmed person.This shows that we are not safe at all,I think this matter should be attended before we loose our lives.
ReplyDeleteComments from abroad:
ReplyDeleteIn some legal systems, shooting an unarmed man is justifiable if his actions present a clear and immediate threat to the public. It does not seem justifiable from the news story (but are they EVER really accurate?) Fists and feet kill more people worldwide every year than all forms of firearms.
Shoot to kill order? Feh.
Shoot to "wound"? Absurd.
In most countries, police have a sidearm for their own defence and/or to stop very violent felons. If a man is so dangerous you are going to shoot (at) him, you want to stop him. Not necessarily kill him, but STOP him from doing that violence. How? By aiming at the center of his body (mass). If your shot is a little right or left, high/low, you still make contact. If he dies, that should be a consequence of HIS violence. If he lives, he can be tried in court. If you're shooting at him in his auto, you'd best be justified in shooting him as well.
The whole idea of "shoot to wound" is a myth.
Go out shooting with someone. Take a piece of lumber, 50x100x900mm, and nail it to a post. Now try to hit that, whilst jogging to your left. Or set it swinging up and down and shoot. That's what it'll be like trying to shoot and arm/leg on a moving person. Damn near impossible. But that 900x900mm "center of mass" is much easier to hit. Also a higher probability of fatality too.