Retired captain tells Madlanga Commission ‘something does not add up’ in Loftus shooting

Retired South African Police Service (SAPS) Captain Ashley Houston told the Madlanga Commission that the official account of the deadly 2023 shooting of Bevan Loftus and four others does not make sense. According to IOL, Houston said the statements from the officers involved and the physical evidence at the scene raise serious questions about whether the shootings occurred as described.

Houston challenges the officers’ version of events

Houston, who has experience in tactical firearms use, training and combat, told the commission he reviewed statements from five police members who said they fired during the incident. He described the officers’ accounts as looking like “overkill.”

According to IOL, the statements attributed the following discharges to the members: Captain Pedro Rodrigues fired 12 rounds from an R1 rifle, Constable Matthew Rodger Halford fired 10 rounds from an R5 rifle, NIU member Yogandram Megan Munsami discharged a stun grenade and one round, NIU member Michael Menzi Shabalala fired three rounds from an R5 rifle, and Metro Police member Jevon Lee China fired two rounds from an LM rifle.

Physical evidence at odds with a shoot-out in self-defence

Houston told the commission he found it unlikely that the volume and placement of gunfire could have occurred inside the flat without officers endangering one another given the flat’s layout. He said officers would have needed to move in a tight, shoulder-to-shoulder formation to clear the narrow corridor using house-penetration tactics.

He pointed to photographs from the scene that, he said, showed blood spatter concentrated low on the walls and largely across the floor, and that bullet holes were likewise positioned at a low level. Houston said this was “inconsistent with a shoot-out in self-defence.”

Houston also said that all five deceased victims sustained head wounds and argued that, if the shooting unfolded as described by the officers, bullet trajectories would more likely have produced marks around the middle or upper sections of the walls rather than low down.

Questions about victims’ positions when shot

Based on the low placement of blood and bullet marks, Houston suggested those findings could indicate the victims were in a lower position when shot, a detail he said raised further questions about the circumstances surrounding the deaths and the credibility of the officers’ accounts.

“Something does not add up,” Houston told the commission.

Case context and next steps

The victims named in the matter were Bevan Loftus, Ryan Santos, Chase Fynn, Michigan Hippolyte and Sihle Zondi, who were killed in April 2023. According to IOL, the deaths have been described as an assassination.

According to IOL, a new witness was expected to testify at the commission on Friday.

Attribution

According to IOL, Houston made these assessments while testifying to the Madlanga Commission. According to IOL, the outlet has previously reported on how it covered the killing of the victims in the case.