marine1
Honorary Master
http://www.iol.co.za/news/crime-courts/paramedic-attacked-at-scene-1.1064543
Yeah right, Tow truck drivers are the worst scum of the road aside from taxi's.
I would wait for all three sides to this story.
Beaten, kicked and dragged to the ground before police thrust a cocked R5 semi-automatic assault rifle into his face. This is the experience a Pretoria tow-truck driver described as he and a colleague tried to help a motorist hurt in a car crash on the N1 on Monday.
Christo Coetzee, manager of HJ Bosch & Sons tow-truck company, and Lukas Hattingh - who is also a qualified paramedic - had just stopped at the scene of the accident north of the capital near the Petroport when they were allegedly attacked by members of the Gauteng flying squad.
Coetzee claims the officers, who were not wearing name badges, swore at them before turning on Hattingh and pushing him, then turning their attention to him.
“It was madness. When I tried to help Lukas (from the road), three policemen turned on me. One of them pushed me backwards; the other cocked his rifle and pushed it into my face.”
He said they backed off and he phoned the police 10111 emergency call centre and told an officer what was happening.
Coetzee believes this call enraged the policemen and two of them attacked him. “They punched me and pushed me around. They demanded to know who I was giving their vehicle details to.
Lukas Hattingh ponders his treatment at the hands of police. Pictures: Sarah Makoe
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“One of them tried to grab my cellphone, while the other carried on pushing his gun into my face,” he said. He said he was hit with the rifle butt but managed to hold on to his phone.
The call was still active and he could hear the operator asking if he was all right, assuring him help was on the way. He gave descriptions of the vehicles, after which Hattingh called his brother-in-law, Louis Strydom.
Hattingh, who has medical training, said when they had arrived on the scene, he had asked a policeman present if anyone was injured. When he pointed to a woman who was standing next to a policeman, he approached to see if he could help, but the policemen became agitated.
“When I insisted on speaking to her (the accident victim), one of the policemen grabbed me and threw me in front of a car. If that driver had not braked and swerved I could have been dead,” he said.
Coetzee too said he feared for his life. “I thought I was going to die like that woman who was killed in Kempton Park,” said Coetzee, in reference to Jeanette Odendaal who was shot dead outside the Kempton Park police station last week.
When Strydom arrived and asked the policemen what was going on, he was allegedly arrested.
“Tshwane metro police arrived and advised us for our own safety to go to the nearest police station,” said Coetzee.
Coetzee said when he tried to open a case against the policemen at the Sinoville police station, a policewoman manning the charge office laughed at him and told him “good luck”.
“When I asked her what she meant, she said they don’t open cases against fellow policemen. I couldn’t believe it. It was only after I started phoning 10111 again that she changed her attitude, but even then it took nearly an hour to get her to write a statement,” he said.
Coetzee said Strydom was released on Tuesday after charges of interfering with police duties were withdrawn.
Police spokesman Lieutenant-Colonel Lungelo Dlamini said a case of assault and pointing of a firearm had been opened. - Pretoria News
Yeah right, Tow truck drivers are the worst scum of the road aside from taxi's.
I would wait for all three sides to this story.
Beaten, kicked and dragged to the ground before police thrust a cocked R5 semi-automatic assault rifle into his face. This is the experience a Pretoria tow-truck driver described as he and a colleague tried to help a motorist hurt in a car crash on the N1 on Monday.
Christo Coetzee, manager of HJ Bosch & Sons tow-truck company, and Lukas Hattingh - who is also a qualified paramedic - had just stopped at the scene of the accident north of the capital near the Petroport when they were allegedly attacked by members of the Gauteng flying squad.
Coetzee claims the officers, who were not wearing name badges, swore at them before turning on Hattingh and pushing him, then turning their attention to him.
“It was madness. When I tried to help Lukas (from the road), three policemen turned on me. One of them pushed me backwards; the other cocked his rifle and pushed it into my face.”
He said they backed off and he phoned the police 10111 emergency call centre and told an officer what was happening.
Coetzee believes this call enraged the policemen and two of them attacked him. “They punched me and pushed me around. They demanded to know who I was giving their vehicle details to.
Lukas Hattingh ponders his treatment at the hands of police. Pictures: Sarah Makoe
INDEPENDENT NEWSPAPERS
“One of them tried to grab my cellphone, while the other carried on pushing his gun into my face,” he said. He said he was hit with the rifle butt but managed to hold on to his phone.
The call was still active and he could hear the operator asking if he was all right, assuring him help was on the way. He gave descriptions of the vehicles, after which Hattingh called his brother-in-law, Louis Strydom.
Hattingh, who has medical training, said when they had arrived on the scene, he had asked a policeman present if anyone was injured. When he pointed to a woman who was standing next to a policeman, he approached to see if he could help, but the policemen became agitated.
“When I insisted on speaking to her (the accident victim), one of the policemen grabbed me and threw me in front of a car. If that driver had not braked and swerved I could have been dead,” he said.
Coetzee too said he feared for his life. “I thought I was going to die like that woman who was killed in Kempton Park,” said Coetzee, in reference to Jeanette Odendaal who was shot dead outside the Kempton Park police station last week.
When Strydom arrived and asked the policemen what was going on, he was allegedly arrested.
“Tshwane metro police arrived and advised us for our own safety to go to the nearest police station,” said Coetzee.
Coetzee said when he tried to open a case against the policemen at the Sinoville police station, a policewoman manning the charge office laughed at him and told him “good luck”.
“When I asked her what she meant, she said they don’t open cases against fellow policemen. I couldn’t believe it. It was only after I started phoning 10111 again that she changed her attitude, but even then it took nearly an hour to get her to write a statement,” he said.
Coetzee said Strydom was released on Tuesday after charges of interfering with police duties were withdrawn.
Police spokesman Lieutenant-Colonel Lungelo Dlamini said a case of assault and pointing of a firearm had been opened. - Pretoria News
