Blood spattered dockets lay strewn around the detective's offices at Kagiso police station in Krugersdorp after four policemen were shot dead by a senior policeman on Monday night. Their deaths followed the deaths of three women and a baby.
Superintendent Chippa Mateane, 42, who went on a rampage killing eight people, was shot dead by police in Sebokeng in the early hours of Tuesday morning, after an extensive manhunt, police said.
Three of the officers were shot - two in the head and one in the chest - in an office and another officer's body was found lying outside the office with a bullet wound to the chest.
The three victims were found lying under a table scattered with dockets, with three bullet holes marking the wall behind the table.
"We will just have to rewrite these dockets," remarked one officer.
Senior Superintendent MM Zondo, 42, Captain TD Masipa, 38, Captain JM Sokhela, 42, and Captain Monama were gunned down at around 7pm, police added.
Mateane had shot dead three women - aged 24, 30 and 48 - and a one-year-old baby boy in Tarlton about half an hour before he made his way to the police station. Another woman, 21, was wounded and taken to hospital in a critical condition.
Mateane then fled the scene in a police car which he later abandoned. He made his way to Sebokeng where he allegedly shot his brother who is also in hospital in a critical condition.
Police managed to track the man down and shoot him.
Senior Superintendent Mary Martins-Engelbrecht said it was not clear what caused the killing spree as it was difficult to collect information from people who were visibly traumatised.
At the station, police officers and bystanders held their heads in despair, reluctant to speak when a Sapa reporter approached them for comment.
"It's tragic, we were like a family, we supported each other," a woman police officer, who asked not to be named, told Sapa.
Another policeman said: "This is Satanism. We only see this in the movies."
Sobbing relatives of some of the victims sat hunched with their heads between their legs in the charge office, while others slept on wooden benches and some just sat chatting. - Sapa