UPDATE: Police confirm suicide at hospital parking lot

Following police investigations, Douglasdale Police have now confirmed that a 60-year-old man committed suicide at Netcare Olivedale Hospital in the early morning hours of 5 November. The man was found dead in a private vehicle in the parking lot outside casualty, from an apparent self-inflicted gunshot wound (see previous article).

Speaking on 7 November, Douglasdale Police spokesperson Warrant Officer Balan Muthan said that the police did not find a suicide note, either at the scene or at the man’s residence, but investigations confirm it was suicide. Muthan would not say where on the body the man shot himself, but said that it was his own handgun, his fingerprints were found on the weapon, and he died of the wound. “Police investigators did a preliminary investigation and found evidence that confirmed it was a suicide,” he said.

“As to the reason why he shot himself outside casualty at the clinic, we don’t know.” General manager of the hospital Bets Welman confirmed that the man was not a patient at the hospital, but a “member of the public”. Head of Victim Support at Douglasdale Police Carol Badenhorst invited anybody who has experienced a traumatic incident to receive trauma counselling from the station’s Victim Support Trauma Counsellors.

Detail: Netcare Olivedale Hospital 011 777 2000, Douglasdale police 011 699 1333, Douglasdale Victim Support Unit 24-hour number 078 850 2341.