Four people, including a suspended police constable, have been arrested in connection with the murder of a young mother in Faerie Glen, Gauteng police said on Wednesday.
“The 30-year-old arrested on Monday is a police member...(There is) a case under investigation where two murder dockets were allegedly stolen, which carries an automatic suspension,” said Maj-Gen Nobesuthu Masiye.
This was two weeks before the Pretoria west murder was committed.
Masiye said the policeman had confessed to participating in the murder in court. He had also led police to the other suspects after his arrest.
She said the other three men arrested were aged between 20 and 34.
Chanelle Henning, 26, was shot dead while driving home after dropping off her five-year-old son at pre-primary school in Manitoba Drive last Tuesday.
Witnesses told police that two men on a motorbike overtook her car and fired several shots. One hit her chest, fatally wounding her.
Her car continued to drive for about 100 metres before crashing into a rock on the pavement.
Police questioned her ex-husband - with whom Henning had been battling for the custody of their child - but he was released. Masiye said he did not appear to be a suspect.
Masiye said the arrested policeman was South African, but she would not comment on the nationality of the other three people arrested.
On Wednesday, the New Age reported two men, including the policeman, had been taken in for police questioning.
The other man had a criminal record, the newspaper reported. It claimed they had been paid by a known Nigerian drug dealer.
Masiye would not confirm this, but said: “The victim was never on drugs”.
The policeman would appear in Pretoria Magistrate's Court on Wednesday.
Further details, including the suspected motive for the killing, could not be revealed as the investigation was at a “very sensitive stage”, Masiye said. - Sapa