A policeman opened fire on three men at the Ashton Police Station on Friday (23 September) at 08:00, shooting two of them fatally, before fleeing and turning the gun on himself.
The two dead were a 24- and 57-year-old man, one of whom died in hospital the following day. The third man managed to escape the shooting unscathed.
The policeman, Constable B Gocina (his full name is unknown), left the scene and went home to nearby Zolani where he fatally shot himself in the head.
According to the survivor’s girlfriend, who asked to remain anonymous, the shooting is the result of a love triangle.
“He had been threatening me and my boyfriend since last year,” she related. “Before shooting those people at the police station he first came to our house to look for my boyfriend.
“He was very calm when talking to me, but had his hands in his jacket pockets, and I could see there was something in his pocket. I thought it was pepper spray, but realised only later that it was a gun.”
She explained that the police constable’s girlfriend had cheated on him last year with her boyfriend before the two of them started their relationship.
“I told my boyfriend last year he should report the incident to the police. But he said he didn’t want to make a case because he was scared Gocina would lose his job.
“But if he had made the case there would have been proof that he had been harassing us since last year. I also don’t understand why he waited a whole year to act out against my boyfriend in this way.”
The woman said Gocina apparently had his service gun taken away from him. “He was suffering from depression. His gun was taken away. He had somehow got hold of the safe where his gun was held.”
She said her boyfriend, along with the two deceased, were found by Gocina after he had asked her where her boyfriend was.
“He pointed the gun at them and wanted to shoot them. Another man intervened and the three of them could run away. They went straight to the police station to make a case against Gocina. He, however, found them at the police station.”
She added she was still shaken by what had happened.
“Things could have been so different. What if he decided to shoot me as well? He chose not kill me and chose not kill his girlfriend.
“Before he left our house he said, ‘Today I am going to get both of them’, referring to my boyfriend and the other victims. He kept on saying they were provoking him. But he was the one who was provoking us for a year.”
She also explained her boyfriend was still in shock over what had happened and has been advised to see a psychologist.
On Friday, provincial police spokesperson colonel André Traut said the case had been handed over to the Independent Police Investigation Directorate (IPID), which will conduct an investigation into the matter.
