Cop, woman in road-rage fracas
2007-03-20 22:55
Pretoria - A woman who has just undergone chemotherapy was punched several times by a uniformed cop after she "showed him the finger" during a road-rage incident.
Tina Cockrell of Mnandi near Pretoria, who said she was highly strung after her cancer treatment, has a blue eye, a bruised cheek and blue bruises on her shoulder after the altercation with the policeman.
Cockrell, an assistant production manager at an ice-cream factory, was on her way home to Centurion from work in Sunderland Ridge on Monday afternoon when she stopped at a broken traffic light.
"I thought it was my turn to go when the other cars didn't move.
"I started to go forward and, the next moment, a white car also began moving forward. The driver went berserk."
"I thought 'What an arrogant man', and showed him my middle finger," said Cockrell.
'Aggression was terrible'
The policeman stopped in the crossing, climbed out and stormed at her.
He apparently shouted "What the fuck do you think you are doing?" while trying to open her car door.
"I will fucking kill you, you bitch," were his next words, before he allegedly punched Cockrell on the cheek.
She apparently slapped his chin and received another blow in return.
"The aggression was terrible. I was terrified," she said.
"I'm not trying to make excuses, but I stopped chemotherapy last week and began a course of radiation therapy."
"I am highly strung. I thought, if the cancer doesn't kill me, this man surely will."
"Every time I close my eyes, I still see him screaming he's going to kill me.
"I shouldn't have shown him my finger, but that still doesn't give him the right to hit me or threaten to kill me," said Cockrell.
The policeman apparently sauntered back to his car when people stopped to find out what was happening.
She was too scared to report the case at Wierda Bridge police station because she thought she might run into the policeman there.
'Left things out of statement'
To add insult to injury, she was ignored at Lyttleton police station when she wanted to be attended to in Afrikaans.
"They managed to find a man who could speak Afrikaans.
"He was courteous, but unfeeling, and just left things out of the statement, but I put them back in," she said.
Police spokesperson Paul Ramoloka confirmed the incident and said they were investigating.