Killed Boschkop officer remembered as ‘ambitious’
“He was so loyal to his work, he wanted to progress in his career, he was ambitious. He saw himself as a leader in the police force, having a high rank one day,” his sister says.
The sister of the young police officer from Boschkop police station who was shot dead while on duty in the early hours of Monday morning last week, mourns his death.
“I am very sad,” said Thabang Nkgoeng (34), “he was my little brother and all I had left after both our parents had already passed away”.
“The station commander told me there was a suspect vehicle, a white Volkswagen Polo without number plates that my brother and his partner attempted to stop.
“As the vehicle stopped, they approached the suspects. The suspects shot at them. My brother died instantly on the scene. It happened at 00:50,” she said.
The partner was taken to hospital with a gunshot wound to his leg.
Spokesperson for the provincial police department, Captain Mavela Masondo, said no arrests in connection with the incident have been made yet, and the investigation is ongoing.
According to Sergeant Yeroboam Matlane, Boschkop police spokesperson, Nkgoeng’s partner, Constable Percy Saimane (34), is currently still recovering at home.
Matlane said Atlegang was from Phaage, near Hammanskraal, and joined the police force in 2017.
“He started working at Boschkop police in 2018. He was a friendly person and very dedicated to his work,” said Matlane.
“He was compassionate and willing to learn. A great team player and able to complete tasks without supervision. We lost a future leader in the police service,” he said.
Thabang said 1 June would have been her brother’s 29th birthday.
She said she received a phone call last Monday “early in the morning, it was 05:50 and I was on my way to work in a taxi”.
“It was the station commander who asked me where I was. He said the taxi must drop me off wherever he was at that moment, he would come and collect me.
She demanded to know what is wrong. “I know my brother was working night shift the previous night”.
Thabang said the station commander insisted on collecting her with a police vehicle. After he took her home in Mamelodi, he broke the sad news to her.
Thabang said she needed closure and called her brother’s partner who was working with him that night.
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“He was also a friend of my brother, and since he was on the scene, and the last person to have been with my brother, I needed to talk with him.
“He confirmed everything just as the station commander had told me,” Thabang said.
She said her brother was very passionate about his job.
“He was so loyal to his work, he wanted to progress in his career, he was ambitious. He saw himself as a leader in the police force, having a high rank one day,” she said.
“I will always remember him for loving his job as an officer of the law. He was a very kind and respected person. He was kind to everybody.”
He leaves behind a son and a daughter, both one years old. He was not married.
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