Murder accused Fabianus Fillipus has admitted that his fingerprints were lifted from a car found near the scene where two cops were killed.
|||Cape Town - A double-murder accused has admitted in court that his fingerprints were lifted off an abandoned vehicle found close to the scene where two Hout Bay police officers were shot and killed.
Rael Kassel for Fabianus Fillipus made admissions on behalf of his client in the Western Cape High Court on Tuesday.
Kassel confirmed that a white BMW was parked outside a shebeen about 50m from where Constables Phindiwe Nikani, 26, and Mandisi Nduku, 27, were killed.
The vehicle was impounded and examined by a fingerprint expert.
A week after the murders, Constable Luvuya Soha compared the prints lifted off the vehicle with those of Fillipus. Kassel accepted that the expert found Fillipus’s right index fingerprint on the bonnet of the vehicle and his left thumbprint on its roof.
Fillipus also confirmed a ballistics report which showed that bullets extracted from the bodies of the police officers belonged to one gun.
The gun has not been found.
It is alleged the officers, who were patrolling in Madiba Square informal settlement in Mandela Park on October 12, confronted Fillipus before the shooting and asked him to move the vehicle - a white BMW - he was driving.
After the vehicle was moved and parked, the officers approached Fillipus but he fled on foot.
He allegedly returned and shot the officers, who were inside the marked police vehicle.
On Tuesday, the State called Hawks Captain Kenneth Speed, who attended the crime scene at 1am on October 13, to testify.
“I took photographs of a white box-shaped BMW found 50m from the crime scene,” Speed said. He was also informed of a possible suspect.
The prosecution is expected to call its final witness on Wednesday.
jade.otto@inl.co.za
Cape Argus