POLICE IN South Africa have allegedly shot dead a three-year-old boy because they thought he was holding a gun.
Atlegang Aphane’s family, who claimed the officer responsible showed no remorse, questioned whether their son had been the victim of a “shoot-to-kill” policy encouraged by the government.
The incident comes after a string of deaths of innocent people at the hands of police, raising fears of the reckless use of lethal force reminiscent of the apartheid era.
Politicians warned that the fatal blunders would make foreign visitors fear for their safety during next year’s football World Cup in South Africa.
The spate of killings has been linked to zero tolerance rhetoric from South African president Jacob Zuma and national police commissioner Bheki Cele, instructing police to open fire on armed criminals without hesitation.
Atlegang was sitting in the back seat of a car parked outside a family home near Midrand, Johannesburg, with his uncle on Saturday. A police constable allegedly drove up and fired through the window. Atlegang was shot in the chest and died instantly. The officer apparently mistook a pipe for a gun being pointed at him, but no pipe or weapon was found at the scene. Bongani Mchunu, the boy’s uncle, told South Africa’s Star newspaper: “We were waiting for the driver when suddenly I heard the sound of tyres screeching as an unmarked VW Golf stopped next to us.
“Then a gunshot followed. The bullet shattered the window on my side and hit Atlegang in the chest.
“One officer in private clothing jumped out of the car and ordered me to the ground while the other removed Atlegang’s body and placed it on the ground next to the car. They screamed at me, saying I was a suspect, but they would not say what I did.” Mr Mchunu said the officers failed to fire a warning shot or ask questions.
The boy’s mother, Mapule Aphane (29), says she was not allowed to get close to her son’s body and had to wait almost six hours for a mortuary van to arrive.
“I stood there watching the man who had just shot my son sucking a lollipop as if nothing had happened,” she told the Star.
“My child was too young to die by the gun. Why did they just shoot?” A police officer, reportedly from Johannesburg’s Alexandra police station, appeared at a magistrates court on Monday and was denied bail.