Cape Town – A rape suspect was found hanging in his cell two days after his arrest.
He was arrested at about 6.40am on Tuesday and had appeared at the Grabouw Magistrate’s Court yesterday, where he was remanded in custody until Wednesday.
He had returned to his cell, in which he was detained alone, at the Grabouw police station at about 3.10pm, the Independent Police Investigative Directorate (Ipid) said in a statement last night.
When SAPS officers visited his cell at about 4.50pm yesterday, they found him hanging in a kneeling position, Ipid said.
’’It's suspected that he used his red underwear lace to hang himself. It is also suspected that he attempted to hang himself with a blue shoelace as a broken piece of it was hanging next to the red underwear.’’
The latest incident is the second suicide to have occurred at a police station recently.
On Tuesday, Ipid said it was investigating a case in which a suspect had allegedly managed to grab a firearm out of a bag and shoot himself while he was partially handcuffed to a chair in Makapanstad in North West. The suspect had been left unattended in a room inside the police station.
Two police officers had arrested the 28-year-old man for theft. The detectives had handcuffed the suspect’s one arm on the chair, Ipid said.
One of the officers left to go to a shop and had left a bag on the table where the suspect was sitting. The other officer then left the suspect alone to go into their supervisor’s office.
With his uncuffed hand, the suspect had searched the bag, found a police firearm inside and shot himself between the ear and eye, Ipid said. The suspect died instantly on the scene.
’’The officer who was left behind alleges that he did not know that the bag had a gun inside,’’ Ipid said.
’’Ipid investigators are shocked and regard the incident as the worst negligence they have ever came across in their lives.’’
IOL