Suicide in a cop van

A man hanged himself in a police van in the early hours of 9 June.

Douglasdale SAPS were called out to a drunken domestic dispute in Sector 1.

“Officers at the scene decided it was best to separate the man and his wife by putting him in the back of the police van to cool off while they interviewed the wife,” said Douglasdale Community Policing Forum (CPF) chairperson, Jean Berdou. “The man was not handcuffed. After talking to the wife, the officers opened the back of the van so they could take a statement from the husband, but they found him dead, with a noose made from his own shoelaces tied around his neck.”

Berdou said the incident was alcohol related. The man’s wife and children are receiving intensive trauma counselling.

The Douglasdale Police spokesperson, Warrant Officer Balan Muthan, said that there was no police negligence and that an inquest had been opened.