Grieving dad nearly arrested

2007-11-26 23:27

Virginia Keppler

Pretoria - Police threatened to arrest a father at Eersterust for allegedly interfering at a crime scene - the grieving parent had been cradling his son's body in his arms shortly after the boy had been shot dead.

The threat came just after 02:30 on Saturday after Enver Edwards heard that gunmen had shot his son, Anslyne, 24, in the heart, a few blocks from his home.

"I'd just heard that my child had been shot dead, and when I got to his body, I just wanted to hold him in my arms.

"The police were very rude and one threatened to lock me up if I didn't let go of my child's body," said a grief-stricken Edwards.

His wife Cynthia said residents who saw the incident, started arguing with police.

She said they had told police to leave Enver with his son for a while, because he was heart-broken.

Edwards said that, according to his son's friend, two men confronted them and demanded their cellphones.

Didn't like the cellphone

The friend handed over his cellphone, but Anslyne didn't have one.

One of the robbers hit his friend over the head with the cellphone and smashed it on the ground, because he didn't like the instrument.

"They shot Anslyne in the heart at close range, and told his friend 'Run, and don't look back, not even once'. Then they fled as well," he said.

Constable Sam Shibambo said the police did not mean to be rude and heartless.

"We understand that people are grieving and want to hold their loved ones, but valuable clues are destroyed when people tread on a crime scene," he said.

- Beeld