�Police shot me and said I disgust them�

Mpho Mokwape | Monday October 20, 2014 16:45

 

These are the words that pregnant 19-year-old  Lapologang Moraladi says were hurled at her by two police officers that attended to her after they shot and injured her on the thigh around Kgomokasitwa road in the early hours of Friday,  while chasing after her soldier boyfriend.

Moraladi says while she was crumbling under excruciating pain the police were busy hurling insults at her.

Narrating her ordeal on that fateful night to The Monitor, Lapologang says when she was picked up by her boyfriend at her parents’ homestead in Pitshane she never imagined she would hear the sound of a gunshot, let alone being hit by a bullet.

“I was picked by my boyfriend around 11 pm on Thursday night and before I jumped into the car I realised that there was a car driving toward us slowly with dimmed lights but I didn’t pay much attention until we were on the road and the car continued following us increasing speed as if to catch up with us”, she said

She explained that while her boyfriend was increasing speed moving towards Rakhuna road, they realised that the car was a police car and in that moment her boyfriend told her that they had been following him for a while.

Lapologang further said she asked him to stop and talk to the police and hear what they want from him but he would not budge and continued increasing speed taking the Lobatse turn moving towards the circle.

She adds that then they realised there was another police car that joined the other that was following them and she became really anxious asking the boyfriend to stop.

“That time I was busy begging him to stop but he did not listen until we reached Lobatse circle where we passed three more cars, two were police cars and one private, we passed them and they all followed us until we reached the Kanye road”, she narrated.

She said from the Kanye road turning towards Kgomokasitwa road, one police car passed them and that she immediately heard a banging sound that she thought was a tyre burst, and demanded from her boyfriend to stop the car or else she would get off while its still moving.

“We stopped and before we could even move out of the car there was another banging sound coming from the front car and in seconds something hit me on the thigh and in that moment I knew I had been shot as I started bleeding”,

Lapologang further said about four police officers approached them, two took the boyfriend and drove to Goodhope where he was held in the cell, while she was taken to Ramatlabama police where she spent six hours being interrogated, but without medical attention.

“I was told to write what I saw at the police station while I was being threatened that if I didn’t I would be jailed for three weeks, I was also shown a set  of bullets and one police officer showed me the one I was shot with while being told that the other bullets if I was shot with them I would be dead by now”, she said.

The victim narrates that after spending six hours at the police cells she was finally taken to Goodhope hospital where she was referred to Kanye for an X-ray and back to Goodhope where the bullet was removed.

Lapologang added that by that time the police had dumped her at the hospital,  and told her they would come back but they never did until she was forced to call her mother who later came and picked her up.

“I still do not know why I was shot and even my boyfriend who was released from custody Friday night won’t tell me why the police were chasing him and my parents are still waiting for answers from the police”, she said.