WINDHOEK – A police officer in Gobabis allegedly stabbed his seven-year-old son to death and wounded his four-year-old boy in a fit of jealousy on Friday after he saw a text message from another man on his girlfriend’s cellphone. The girlfriend, the mother of the children, was at work at the time.
According to the Omaheke Police Regional Commander, Commissioner Josephat Abel, the constable who could not be identified as he was yet to appear in court, was alone with the children at home when he read the SMS and committed the murder on Friday night. “I do not understand how anyone can stab and kill his own biological children – defenceless kids,” said Abel.
The suspect, a 28-year-old, apparently started threatening to kill the man who sent the SMS but the threatened man went to the police station to report the matter. Threats were also issued to the girlfriend. It was when the police went to search for the constable to warn him to desist from making threats that the police found the seven-year-old son lying dead in a pool of blood. Upon further investigation, the police found the four-year old son lying half dead in the bedroom. He was also stabbed several times.
The boy was sped to Windhoek where he was admitted to the Windhoek Central Hospital and later transferred to a private hospital.
“The suspect came to [the house in] Nganate Street, Tswana Block, Epako settlement [where he] found four children – his two sons and two more children. The suspect allegedly chased the other two children away and only remained with his two sons. There were allegedly no other people present at the house,” the police said yesterday.
The seven-year-old son was stabbed four times in the head and once in the neck and died on the spot. The four-year-old son was stabbed in the neck, head and back.
The deceased boy was identified as Gregory Swartz and his young wounded brother in hospital as Tirtus Swartz.
Abel said the suspect sent a text message to his colleagues saying that he had messed up by stabbing his children over a woman.
The suspect was arrested in Epako on Saturday night while trying to evade capture and is expected to appear in court today.
The police said the woman also received threatening messages in which the suspect threatened to kill her, on her other cellphone. The suspect had been working in the police force in Gobabis for two years.
By Magreth Nunuhe