14-hour stand-off with police ends in suicide
MICHAEL Volkwyn’s younger sisters are unhappy that police did not allow them to talk to him before he shot and killed himself yesterday after a 14hour stand-off with the police in the suburb of Hazendal in Athlone.
Volkwyn’s sisters, Diana Williams and Barbara Volkwyn, said if they had been given the opportunity to talk to their brother, they would have convinced him to hand himself over to the police.
Police spokesman Frederick van Wyk said the drama beganwhen SPCA staff, accompanied by law-enforcement officers, went to Volkwyn’s house in Albermarle Road on Tuesday evening to remove his 14 dogs.
He said the SPCA’s actions followed a complaint by a tenant living in a flat on Volkwyn’s property, who claimed Volkwyn’s dogs had attacked her.
Van Wyk said the complainant opened a case at the Athlone police station, and the police were ordered to remove the dogs.
“Upon arriving at the scene at around 6.30pm on Tuesday evening, we asked to enter the place… the dogs attacked our members, and the suspect fired a shot that hit one of the policemen in the face before locking himself inside the house,” he said.
Van Wyk said an attempted murder case had been opened for investigation, and the wounded policeman had been taken to hospita.
Yesterday, Volkwyn’s brother, Roy, who had flown from Johannesburg to the scene, had been given the opportunity to speak to his brother, said Van Wyk. Roy negotiated with Volkwyn for about two hours, but he wasn’t able to convince his brother to surrender himself.
Van Wyk said that the technical response team unit, armed with automatic weapons, then moved into the house and a few minutes later, two shots were fired.
Paramedics went inside. They declared Volkwyn dead at the scene.
“Two shots were fired, and the 61-year-old deceased lay on the floor. He had shot himself,” said Van Wyk, who did not elaborate about the first shot that had been fired.
Distressed family members blamed the police. “We believe we’ve been robbed of a life. We wanted to say: ‘Michael, we are here’. We told the police we know him better and he would listen to us… They claim they know his history but they don’t, we know him better. My brother Roy’s negotiations with police failed,” said Diana Williams, one of the sisters at the scene.
“We asked if we could just speak over the megaphone to say we are here, we love him, and they came back and said they can’t do that. I believe we’ve been robbed of a human right because we knew he wasn’t coming out.”
The other sister, Barbara Volkwyn, said the police refused to allow her to speak to Michael yesterday.
Before the police went into the house, Barbara said: “I want to speak to my brother and they are refusing. I know for a fact he is not coming out. Once they move in, they’ll kill him. We want to talk to him before they move in.”