Johannesburg - A police sergeant was on Wednesday convicted of culpable homicide for shooting a handcuffed man in the back when he was fleeing after being arrested at a Boksburg nightclub.
Sergeant Raymond le Roux was found guilty of culpable homicide by the Palm Ridge High Court for shooting Rean Ramdin last year. He will be sentenced on April 19.
“We’re not happy at all,” said Ramdin’s sister, Melody Perumal.
The family believed that Le Roux should have been convicted of murder, not the lesser charge of culpable homicide.
“He was in handcuffs, running away,” said Perumal, questioning how Ramdin could have been a threat to police officers.
Ramdin’s hands were handcuffed behind his back.
Perumal said nine shots were fired at her brother as he was chased about 60m from the police vehicle he had jumped from. The ninth shot killed him. She believed Le Roux was tired of chasing Ramdin, so he shot him.
Le Roux was arrested by the Independent Police Investigative Directorate (Ipid). He has since resigned from the police.
He was charged with murder but was convicted of culpable homicide instead.
“It is alleged that police were called to a club in Boksburg North after the deceased was allegedly found with drugs at the club.
“They took 29-year-old Rean Ramdin away in a police vehicle after handcuffing him. It is alleged he jumped out of the vehicle and ran away. The suspect shot and killed Ramdin after he allegedly ignored warning shots,” said Ipid spokesman Moses Dlamini yesterday.
At the time of the shooting, The Star reported that Ramdin’s family last saw him when he told his parents he was going on a date to an ice cream parlour. The next day – after calling police stations, friends, hospitals and mortuaries – they found his body at the Springs mortuary, shot in the back, Nobody told them he had been shot.
Perumal said at the time that her brother had come out of rehab for drug addiction a week earlier, and was trying to change his behaviour.
He met up with his cousins at Presley’s nightclub in Boksburg; they went on to another venue but he stayed on. Later the family were told that Ramdin was arrested at Presley’s, was handcuffed and put in a police car, but escaped at the corner of Rietfontein and Rondebult roads.
Police told the family he was handcuffed, two warning shots were fired but he continued to run and was then shot dead.
The Star