A Johannesburg man, enraged that his wife called police for help after he allegedly attacked her, killed her in front of officers inside a police station as she tried to open a domestic abuse case against him.
Gabriel da Silva, 47, gunned down Lana Pereirra Marques, 45, as she filled out documents at the Parkview police station charge office in northern Johannesburg early yesterday morning.
The couple had been brought to the station in separate vehicles.
They had just arrived at the station when Da Silva told the officers that he needed to fetch his reading glasses.
When he returned to the charge office he pulled out a revolver, shooting Marques in the head before threatening five policemen who tried to disarm him.
As the officers attempted to take his gun away, he shot himself.
Police said Marques did not have a protection order against Da Silva and that the cause of the couple's fight was unknown.
Researcher Lisa Vetten of the Wits Institute for Social and Economic Research said even if protection orders were granted, magistrates only ordered the removal of firearms from the alleged abuser in 2% of such applications.
"Very few women know that under the Firearms Control Act they can ask for their partners' guns to be taken away," she said.
Police spokesman Lieutenant-Colonel Lungelo Dlamini confirmed that no protection order had been granted to Marques.
"The couple were filling out domestic violence forms when the husband left and returned with a gun, killing his wife and himself," Dlamini said. He said the cause of the argument was not known.
Parkhurst ward councillor Tim Truluck said the couple had moved into the northern Johannesburg area in November last year. He said no one knew much about them or what could have led to the incident.
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