A VIP protection unit officer has been arrested after he allegedly shot and killed a teenager while she was sleeping in a room she rented with her mother, whom the policeman apparently accused of witchcraft.
Independent Police Investigative Directorate spokesperson Ndileka Cola said it was alleged that the suspect, who lives in Seshego, outside Polokwane in Limpopo, was woken up by heavy rain and water getting into a room he rented in the same yard as the victim and her mother.
The 26-year old police officer is alleged to have accused Alucia Mohlaloga's mother of witchcraft before pumping bullets into their room, through a closed door, at about 2am on Friday.
"The police officer allegedly fired numerous shots through their door and one caught [hit] the 16-year-old girl who is no more," Cola said.
Cola said the officer was found in a place where he had allegedly hidden the firearm used during the incident.
Shadrack Mathebula, a neighbour who called an ambulance for Alucia after she was shot in the upper body, said he had spent the entire day with the police officer on Thursday and that he had told him that the woman was bewitching him.
"It was the two of us and the police officer's brother-in-law when the mother of the deceased came back from work. She greeted us then asked the officer where her curtain was which she had left in another vacant room," he said.
Mathebula said when the mother went to her room, the officer made utterances that she was bewitching him and said he would "solve her tonight".
"As [we experienced a] hail storm, the officer came to my room and said he wanted to show me what the witches are doing in his room. When I arrived in his room he showed me how flooded it was and he blamed that on witchcraft," Mathebula said.
He said the officer then asked him to relocate the officer's family to Lethuli Park, also in Seshego.
"While I was loading his belongings I heard a gunshot and upon investigating I found [Alucia] Mohlaloga bleeding profusely from her chest," he said.
He said while he was trying to help Alucia and take her to hospital, the officer insisted that he should take him and his family to a safe place first.
Mathebula said when he walked outside he found the suspect in the driver's seat of his bakkie.
"When I was driving him, he said he was going to jail for the rest of his life and he didn't say for what. He had his gun in the car," he said.
Cola said the suspect is expected to appear in the Seshego magistrate's court today on charges of murder and defeating the ends of justice.
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