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(Scroll down for video) A police officer was jailed after she shot and killed a 15-year-old during a road rage incident.
A female police officer who is a mother of two, was convicted of killing the teenager and attempted murder of four others in an incident of road rage.
Officer Hlengiwe Mkhize, who is 31-years-old, was sentenced to 15 years in prison. Mkhize was an officer at the KwaZulu-Natal police department before she was jailed by the Pietermaritzburg High Court on Thursday for murder and attempted murder.
According to court proceedings, 15-year-old Ngobo Mkhize, was driving a car with four of his friends when he accidentally rear ended officer Mkhize's car. The two came out of their cars, and agreed to report the accident to the police. When they got back into their cars, Mkhize claimed, that she heard what sounded like a gunshot. In response, Mkhize fired twice at Ngcobo's car and struck him in the head.
The 15-year-old was rushed to the hospital, but sadly, he could not be saved. He later died in the hospital from a gunshot wound. When police arrived, Mkhize attempted to open a case of attempted kidnapping against the boys, claiming the boys wanted to kidnap her therefore she shot at them in self-defense. At sentencing, Judge Thembisa Maphumulo, rejected her version of the events. The judge found that something made her angry, which caused her to shoot at the teenagers.
“Road rage has caused many unpleasant incidents between total strangers. People need to realize that they do not own the road, things happen and they have to act civilly. Unfortunately, in this incident, one moment of the officer’s road rage left a young boy dead and her kids were left to grow up without their mother around. Just heartbreaking,” Nicole Botha, 41, of Cape Town, South Africa told YourJewishNews.com after learning about Mkhize’s jail sentence.
“Mkhize had been well trained in the justice system and she tried to manipulate the system by opening a case of attempted kidnapping against the victims instead of handing herself over for murder,” social worker Philiswa Zungu said.
Mkhize has two children, aged 14 and 11 months, with two different men. Both fathers reportedly told the social worker that they were prepared to take care of their child if Mkhize went to jail, according to court documents. Mkhize was sentenced to 15 years for murder, of which five years were suspended. She was also sentenced to 5-years in prison for four attempted murders of the other people who were in the car. The sentences will run concurrently.
“The Independent Police Investigative Directorate is pleased with the sentence, as it sends a message to police officers that they will be held accountable if they misuse their firearms and their authority,” IPID spokesperson Moses Dlamini said.