Crime scene in video footage of Katlehong petrol heist tampered with - Phahlane

17 January 2017

Johannesburg – The dramatic video footage of a Katlehong petrol station heist during which a police officer was fatally wounded - seemingly by one of his colleagues - shows that the crime scene was tampered with, Acting National Police Commissioner Lieutenant General Khomotso Phahlane said on Tuesday.

"What happened was bad and the video was terrible. The crime scene was tampered with," Phahlane said during his visit to the family of the slain officer Tshepo Tladi.

"Once there was a shot, a person moved away. He was carrying a rifle to his left, you literally see that rifle being moved around and then people going out [and] coming back - picking something up.

"The way the scene was dealt with, it makes it difficult as to what happened... Irrespective of who was responsible for the death of Tshepo, [they] would be dealt with accordingly."

The video revealed that a fellow officer may be responsible for Tladi's death.

Asked why the police initially said Tladi was shot by robbers, Phahlane said they couldn't have excluded the robbers.

Video's circulation 'insensitive'

He said he became aware of the video only on Saturday and would also conduct an internal investigation.

Phahlane said although the video would help with the investigation, the person who circulated it was insensitive.

The media was not allowed to speak to the Tladi family. Phahlane requested that members of the media give the family space, adding that Tladi's grandmother was not well.

News24 has since obtained video footage of the shootout.

Footage shows a group of officers crouching down before apparently shooting at the gang of suspects who are not in view.

While shooting at the suspects with a rifle, the police officer appears to be shot by a fellow officer as he moves across that officer's line of fire.

No comment on suspect's identity

He falls to the ground and a pool of blood gathers around him while the fire fight continues.

On Monday, police spokesperson Captain Kay Makhubela said police were not aware of any footage of the incident.

"We are investigating a case of murder and business robbery," he said. "The police were under fire and they were also shooting."

He would not comment on the identity of the suspect, saying only that the investigation into the murder was ongoing.

News24 previously reported that the officer had been wounded in the shooting and later died in hospital.

The officer had confronted a gang of armed men who were in the process of robbing a petrol station and it was initially reported that the he had been shot by the gang in an exchange of fire.

He sustained a gunshot wound to his upper body.

No arrests

Last week, police spokesperson Makhubela confirmed in a statement that the wounded officer had died in hospital as a result of his injuries on Thursday.

"The police responded to information of a business robbery in the early hours of 12 January, 2017, that heavily armed suspects attacked one petroleum filling station where they forced entry, but failed to open the drop safe," he said.

"They took off with an undisclosed amount of cash after damaging the tills," Makhubela said.

Arrests were yet to be made.

Independent Police Investigative Directorate spokesperson Moses Dlamini said the shooting of the officer had not been reported to the directorate, but that detectives had since started probing the circumstances surrounding his killing.

This article first appeared on News24, see here.