Cops guilty of strangling addict to death

ON FREEDOM Day 2015, Polokwane police were called to a home to restrain a drug user having a psychotic episode, but by the time they left, the man – JJ Theron – was dead.

A medico-legal post-mortem subsequently declared the cause of Theron’s death as asphyxia, meaning he was strangled to death.

The Polokwane High Court has now ruled that Theron was killed by one, or more than one, of the four officers that attended the scene.

“In the circumstances, I make a finding that one or more of the members of the SAPS involved in the struggle with the deceased, did, in fact, throttle him,” ruled Judge President

Ephraim Makgoba.

Four officers subdued an apparently high Theron at his parents’ home in Bendor, where he was acting violently in his locked bedroom.

He held his minor daughter captive behind the closed door, and an officer testified that he was heard saying: “I am killing my own child.”

The child was subsequently

A struggle ensued between Theron and the officers who subdued him.

“The question is: what method of subjugation could have been used to subdue the deceased. The crux of this case is whether the members of the SAPS managed the psychotic episode of the deceased correctly, with the least amount of force.”

Judge Makgoba

heard

rescued.

evidence from two doctors who agreed that the cause of death was asphyxia.

The officers did not argue justification for their actions, but denied strangling Theron, or even that they had touched his neck area during the commotion.

“I find it improbable that during a struggle between the deceased and more than four police officers for a considerable period of more than 10 minutes, none of them could not have held the deceased by his neck area,” said Judge Makgoba.

He declared the SAPS liable for compensation of Theron’s parents and his divorced wife on behalf of their two minor children.

Compensation was yet to be determined.