Crime in brief

Lwandle police have opened a case of culpable homicide after a toddler was claimed in a fatal accident on Saturday (6 December).

Jermaine Carelse, spokesperson for the City of Cape Town’s Fire and Rescue Service, said emergency crews swiftly responded to the incident on receiving an emergency call of the pedestrian accident in Phaliso Street, Asanda Village, just after 17:00.

“The crews from Strand Fire Station responded to the incident and found a minor who had been run over,” said Carelse. “Officers requested law enforcement officers to assist as the driver was assaulted by the community. The minor, a two-year-old boy, was declared dead on the scene. The police took control of the scene at 18:30.”

Police spokesperson Sergeant Mthokozisi Gama said initial reports state the driver of a Mercedes-Benz claimed to have heard a noise from his vehicle’s rear wheel area and felt resistance, as though something was obstructing the car’s movement.

“The driver allegedly stopped to investigate and discovered the child beneath the vehicle. With assistance from community members, the child was removed from under the car,” Gama said, adding that the circumstances surrounding the incident forms part of the police’s ongoing investigation.

The 34-year-old driver was subsequently arrested and appeared in the Strand Magistrates’ Court on Monday (8 December).

A collaborative effort between the Somerset West Neighbourhood Watch and Public Safety officers led to the swift arrest of a suspect and the recovery of a stolen ladder last Thursday morning (4 December).

At about 10:30 a member of the Somerset West Neighbourhood Watch flagged a Somerset West Public Safety vehicle down and informed the driver that a suspect had just jumped a wall, stolen an aluminium ladder and fled the premises.

Public Safety officers immediately broadcast the suspect’s description over their radios.

The coordination paid-off almost instantly as the suspect and the stolen ladder were intercepted and recovered near the corner of Gordon Road and Caledon Street.

Officers from the Somerset West crime investigation department detained the suspect and secured the ladder. Somerset West police were then called to the scene and placed the suspect under arrest.