Cops accused of killing schoolboy asleep in his bedroom

15 officers burst into Tsomo home in small hours looking for a gun

A grieving family has accused police of murder after a teenager was stabbed and beaten to death, allegedly by officers on a raid in Tsomo.

The death of Tsomo High School Grade 10 pupil Nathi Sotushe, 19, in the early hours of Friday comes amid concerns about rising levels of police brutality in SA.

According to Sotushe’s distraught family, 15 officers raided his home looking for an unlicensed firearm, and this is when they stabbed and assaulted him.

Eastern Cape police spokesperson captain Khaya Tonjeni confirmed a murder docket had been handed to the Independent Police Investigative Directorate (Ipid) for investigation.

He did not respond to detailed queries about whether the incident was a police raid or what the police were looking for.

Ipid spokesperson Ndileka Cola said the killing was being investigated, but at the time of writing on Monday she did not have all the details about the case.

An account given by Sotushe’s uncle, Mninawa Gwadela, suggests his nephew had been sleeping in the back room of the family’s home in the early hours of Friday.

Gwadela, who was sleeping in a room next door, described what played out as a “gruesome murder” that was unwarranted.

“When I went inside Nathi’s room he was already lying in a pool of blood. It looked like they had stabbed him in his neck with something sharp. There was blood everywhere,” he said.

“He had given the police the name of a guy who had a gun. He died 30 minutes after that.”

“The police never contacted me as the head of the household to alert me as to what was happening. His room was filled with blood and I could smell the iron (in his blood).”

Gwadela said police eventually told him they were looking for an firearm suspected to be in Sotushe’s possession.

“I had heard about this gun before. I was told that Nathi had taken the gun from a family member. When the police were beating him up he gave up the name of the man who had that gun. There was no gun in the house.”

“They killed Nathi for nothing because he was not threatening their lives. I could hear my nephew from the other room giving them the information they wanted — telling them the truth about this gun. But they didn’t stop strangling and beating him — I could hear him struggling to talk and to breathe.”

He said his nephew was a shy person who was neither violent nor aggressive.

“I still can’t believe he’s dead. He took his last breath in my arms. I don’t know how I’m going to move from this — he was a son to me,” said Gwadela.

I still can’t believe he’s dead. He took his last breath in my arms. I don ’ t know how I’m going to move from this