Police kill innocent woman - DA comments

Reports coming in from Pretoria relate that members of the Flying Squad shot and killed a woman in a vehicle they presumed was hijacked.  It was the wrong vehicle.  The woman, a passenger in the vehicle, died while early reports are that two others were injured.

This vehicle posed no threat to the police who nonetheless, followed the “Shoot to Kill” directive repeated, mantra-like, by the President, the Minister of Police and the National Police Commissioner. 

Another family is in deep mourning after the senseless killing of their loved one – a daughter, possibly a wife and a mother – and two others were injured.  What have we come to if we face death at the hands of the police while out on a Sunday drive?  Section 49 of the Criminal Procedures Act, states that if a person aims a gun at a policeperson, they may be shot.  If they aim the gun at anyone else, they may be shot.  The President muddied the waters in talking of a ‘warning shot’ – no warning shot is in fact necessary.

But for the police to shoot and kill innocent civilians – again – should act as a wake-up call for the “Shoot to Kill” advocates.  We’ve worked too long and too hard at our democracy to begin writing off killings such as this one, as collateral damage.