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Tears flow at memorial for slain cops
29/06/2006 11:02 - (SA)
Johannesburg - Three-year-old Braedon Schoeman played with one of the six police dogs that, with their handlers, formed a guard of honour at a memorial service for his father and three other policemen who died in the Jeppestown siege.
Ushers gave tissues to the hundreds of people gathered at the Little Falls Christian Centre on the West Rand.
The four slain policemen have been named as: Inspectors Frederick "Frikkie" van Heerden, 32, and Nzama Victor Mathye, 49, both of the West Rand dog unit; Sergeant Gert Schoeman, 30, of the West Rand emergency response service; and Constable Peter Francois Seaward, 31, of the Johannesburg dog unit.
Grief was etched on the faces of Nzama Victor Mathye's family - he left his two young children orphaned.
At the door a table bore photographs of the dead policemen with their police caps arranged next to memorial candles.
At the front of the church, the wives of the dead policemen consoled each other with hugs and soft words.
Among those attending the memorial on Thursday were Gauteng police Commissioner Perumal Naidoo and top detective Piet Byleveld.
Nine people believed to be associated with the robbers were dead after a bloody shootout in a house in Jeppestown, Johannesburg.
The bloody clash erupted when police probing a robbery at the Pick' n Pay in Honeydew on Sunday morning were led to the house where the gang was allegedly to rendezvous - by a person arrested on the scene.
Eleven people have appeared in Roodepoort magistrate's court on initial charges related to the robbery and the deaths.
- SAPA
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