Domestic dispute turns deadly as man shoots himself

Published Mar 8, 2017

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Curious residents of Tladi township in Soweto scattered and others crouched when loud, successive bangs sounding like gunshots emanated from a house where a man had taken his girlfriend hostage.

The bangs were so loud and strong that they shattered the windows of the house and broke the door.

Immediately afterwards, heavily armed National Task Force officers in camouflage jumped over neighbouring houses’ walls and quickly got into the house.

There they found the woman, 31, still alive but bleeding from the head where her boyfriend, 37, had shot her. Not far from her lay her boyfriend, dead from a self-inflicted wound.

The discovery of both the victim and the gunman ended a 12-hour hostage drama that had started when the man snuck into the house as the woman took her son outside to a car waiting to take him to school.

The drama ended when the man tried to commit a murder-suicide but only managed the latter.

According to a neighbour, who did not want to be named, it all started around 6am when the man entered the house. “I was going to the tap around 6am when I heard her scream,” she said.

Neighbours who could hear the woman pleading with the man not to kill her, flagged down a patrolling police vehicle.

However, the police officers were unable to get into the house and called for back up.

When it became apparent that what they were dealing with was a hostage situation, hostage negotiators were called.

Police said they started negotiating with the man at 8am. First was the regional negotiator from the Soweto region, followed by the provincial one until a national negotiator was summoned. However, none of them were able to get through to him.

Allegations are that throughout his conversation with the negotiators, the man demanded to have his family members brought to the scene.

They were called to the scene and he spoke to them but the main demand was for his girlfriend to withdraw a charge of assault she had laid against him.

General Fred Kekana of the SAPS confirmed the woman had opened the case in January and the man was out on bail at the time he held her hostage.

Kekana said the man was accused of beating up his girlfriend who then opened a case of assault with the intent to cause grievous bodily harm and malicious damage to property.

“The police coming to look for him is what triggered this incident. We were called at 7am where the incident was reported,” Kekana said.

Throughout the negotiations, the National Task Force officers had reportedly set up surveillance from the neighbouring houses to see what was happening in the house. They later used stun grenades to break the door.

The father of the woman said he first met the man in December. He said his daughter’s lover did not seem threatening at all but the assault case changed the perception he had of him

Neighbours also said the man was a very quite person who would just pass them without greeting them. By late in the afternoon, residents stood behind police barricades waiting to see how the scene would be resolved.

By 6pm, the man's body had still not been taken out of the house.

The man, from Diepkloof, was allegedly unemployed and survived on piece jobs.

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