Cop kills lover, self as colleagues plead with him
17 Apr 2012 | Graeme Hosken
Here's more info about this tragic shooting
WITH screams of "no" echoing through a Pretoria police station charge office, colleagues of an enraged policeman, who had moments before shot his girlfriend five times in front of them, desperately tried to stop their friend from shooting himself.
Constable Vutivi Mabunda, stationed at Moot police station, shot and killed himself seconds after he shot his girlfriend, Tsholanang Kgaladi. The shooting erupted shortly after Mabunda, 24, came off night duty.
The couple apparently became involved in a heated argument moments after he arrived home and Kgaladi, 23, fled the flat, seeking help from Mabunda's colleagues.
When Kgaladi arrived at the police station she asked for help in getting her clothes from the flat.
Provincial police spokesman Lieutenant-Colonel Tshisikhawe Ndou said Mabunda's colleagues telephoned him and told him to report to the station to resolve the dispute.
The shooting, according to Ndou, happened moments after Mabunda arrived at the police station.
Mapule Shilaloke, who was standing outside the charge office waiting to visit her brother-in-law who was arrested over the weekend, said as she waited a policeman suddenly ran past her with his gun drawn screaming at her to run.
"As I ran I heard people inside screaming ... and then gunshots. I heard the people inside scream 'no Mabunda, no, no' and then the gunshots. There were so many."
As police station members secured the scene and paramedics desperately tried to revive Kgaladi, Mabunda's colleagues gathered crying and hugging each other in support.
A police officer said Mabunda loved Kgaladi. "He was so in love with her. I cannot understand why he did this. It doesn't make any sense," said the officer.
Lifemed Ambulance Services spokesman Frikkie Gous said Mabunda died on the scene, while Kgaladi died shortly before paramedics could get her to the nearby Eugene Marais Hospital.
