A mom has opted to launch her own probe into her son's death, citing police inaction in the weeks after the assault.
|||Cape Town - A Stellenberg mother has opted to launch her own investigation into her son’s death, citing police inaction in the weeks after the assault that she believes led to the teenager’s death.
On the evening of September 8, Jethro van Schalkwyk, 19, was punched in a scuffle outside a pub in Table View. He fell to the pavement, hitting his head on the concrete.
A friend who was with Jethro at the time, said they had been walking to a pub to look for the friend’s hoodie which had been misplaced when a man shoved Jethro from behind.
“Jethro said: ‘No need to be kind’, at which stage the man turned around and decked him with a solid right hook,” said the friend.
“He hit his head on the sidewalk and was quite dazed so I helped him to lean up against a nearby window.”
The friend said that at that stage the man who had thrown the punch approached the two, with the apparent intention of attacking Jethro again.
The friend and the man got into a fight, and Van Schalkwyk stumbled away. When Jethro’s friend saw him again, the teenager was lying unconscious on a nearby pavement, and his shoes had been stolen.
Jethro was taken by his friends to Netcare Blaauwberg Hospital, and later transferred to Groote Schuur where doctors performed emergency surgery to remove a blood clot and relieve pressure on his brain.
Doctors could not bring him out of an induced coma. Ten days after the assault, Prout-Jones took the decision to switch off her son’s life support.
“I’m not blaming the investigating officer, or even an individual police station. I understand that everything works according to a system, but that system seems to me to be coming up short. For instance, I heard from my source at Groote Schuur that the medical report was requested only [last] week,” she said. The report is needed as proof in a murder case.
“Important information I uncovered in the days after the assault was only recently followed up by police.”
Prout-Jones asked that details of the probe be withheld, saying the evidence was confidential and being passed on to police.
According to the Table View police, names, addresses and contact details of the alleged suspects were received from witnesses and video footage was viewed.
The police said the video footage was not clear enough so it would be sent for photo clarity enhancement.
Investigators were also awaiting the results of the post-mortem.
Any witnesses are asked to contact Detective Warrant Officer Stephen Maarman at 021 521 3300.
daneel.knoetze@inl.co.za
Cape Argus