A policeman from Somerset West shot dead three members of his family at home before turning the gun on himself.
|||Cape Town - A policeman from Somerset West on Sunday night shot dead three members of his family at home before turning the gun on himself.
Sergeant Max Gwanya, 37, was stationed at the Commercial Crimes Unit in Bellville.
Gwanya lived with his wife and four-year-old son in Rusthof Street in Broadlands.
His son, 37-year-old wife and her 20-year-old sister all died in the attack. They have not yet been named.
Neighbours say they heard around eight shots at 9.30pm last night.
“We dived to the ground not knowing where the shots had come from. We contacted police and stayed inside until they arrived,” said a neighbour, who asked not to be named.
The man described Gwanya as a “cool, friendly” person who always greeted his acquaintances on the street with a smile on his face. There were no external signs of conflict in the family, he said.
“They seemed normal as can be. A young, happy family. There was not even a sound of a quarrel before we heard the shots go off,” he said.
Police spokesman André Traut today said the incident was being investigated, but a motive was yet to be established.
Gwanya’s neighbour said that he had noticed a number of bags packed near the door of the house, while police were investigating the scene. This led him to speculate that a quarrel had occurred before the shooting.
Relatives of Gwanya arrived at the home this morning. They stood in the yard, crying and consoling each other.
Also on the scene was a fellow police officer and friend of Gwanya’s. He said that the stress under which police officers performed their duties could lead “ordinary, good” people to a “breaking point”.
“There’s no way of knowing what will trigger it off, I don’t even think that the officers themselves realise the effects that the stress of the job has on them,” he said.
Cape Argus