By Karen Breytenbach
On the night that Superintendent Marius van der Westhuizen shot himself, after killing his three children, members of the police's Special Task Force opened fire on him because they thought he was shooting at them.
Former policeman Inspector Jaap Koekemoer testified in Van der Westhuizen's Cape High Court murder trial on Monday that he and other trained snipers had been sent to apprehend their colleague in his Brackenfell home on July 28 2006.
"Our unit of six was warned to be wide awake because we didn't know where he was and we knew he could shoot at us," Koekemoer said.
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They had found him in the backyard after moving through his house and discovering the bodies of his dead young son and daughters.
"Superintendent Van der Westhuizen asked us who we were and what we were doing there. We said we were from the Special Task Force. He told us to get off his property or he would shoot us."
Koekemoer said they had seen him raising his hand and cocking his gun four times. When a shot had rung out, they had thought he was shooting at them and had returned fire, but had not hit him.
Moments later, they had seen that he had shot himself through the chin. They had withdrawn immediately and paramedics had been sent in to take him to hospital.
Koekemoer denied a suggestion by the defence that his unit had been sent in with clear instructions to kill Van der Westhuizen.
"We weren't instructed, but we wouldn't have let him shoot one of us," he said.
Brackenfell detective Ewald de Goede said he had visited the scene and later the Kuils River Hospital, where Van der Westhuizen had been in ICU and where his wife, Charlotte, had been treated for shock.
He said he had told Charlotte's parents what had happened and had arrested Van der Westhuizen in his hospital bed.
"He couldn't talk, but he was looking a bit wild and was shaking in the bed. I cuffed him and explained that I was arresting him for murder," said De Goede.
Cross-examination will continue today (Tuesday).
- This article was originally published on page 4 of The Mercury on November 25, 2008
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