Police confirm arrest in top cop’s murder

A 39-year-old man has been arrested for the murder of AntiGang Unit section commander Lt-Col Charl Kinnear.

TimesLIVE reported on Thursday morning that the man, who has not been named as he is yet to appear in court, allegedly “pinged” Kinnear’s phone more than 2,000 times.

According to a source, a 39year-old man from Springs, on Gauteng’s East Rand, is also believed to have tracked the phones of Cape Town lawyer William Booth, who was himself the target in a shooting in Higovale on April 9.

He was also allegedly pinging the phones of another highranking Anti-Gang Unit member, and an underworld boss who is a rival of another alleged underworld leader, Nafiz Modack.

In March, Modack endorsed the services of the man on his Facebook page, saying that “all Johannesburg debt collections” needed to go through him.

When contacted by TimesLIVE on Wednesday night, Hawks spokesperson Brig Hangwani Mulaudzi would not confirm or deny any arrests related to the case.

“We are treating this matter with the sensitivity it deserves.

We will formally announce any developments at the right time,” he said via text message.

But on Thursday morning, Mulaudzi confirmed the arrest.

“A 39-year-old suspect will appear at the Bishop Lavis magistrate’s court on Friday in connection with the murder of LtCol Charl Kinnear, 52.

“The suspect was arrested in Gauteng on Wednesday and details surrounding the murder are still unknown. More arrests are not ruled out as investigations are still under way,” he said.

Kinnear was gunned down while waiting for his son in his car outside his home in Bishop Lavis on Friday.

Mulaudzi said that Kinnear was shot at “close range”.

Kinnear was a detective head of an Anti-Gang Unit team, and was working on several highlevel cases.

Most recently, Kinnear was part of the large-scale investigation into the Central Firearms Registry, where alleged corruption at several police stations across the country apparently helped highprofile gang bosses secure firearms for themselves and their circle of friends, family, and bodyguards. —