SA man kills children, shoots himself dead

The Herald, February 8, 1980 

BRAKPAN. – A messenger of the magistrates’ courts here killed his three children with a 12-bore shotgun after setting fire to the family’s home and their second hand furniture shop. 

Then he drove to the court, told his colleagues what he had done, and shot himself dead, Iana reports. 

Mr Marthinus Prinsloo (36), first set fire to the house and a car at Witpoort Plots, Dunnottar, near Springs on Wednesday.

With his children, and driving a second car, he then went to the shop, where he used an iron bar to smash furniture, filing cabinets, deep freezers and wardrobes, and then set the shop on fire. 

From there he drove to the home of his mother-in-law, Mrs Rassie Jordaan. He took his children into a bedroom and shot them in the back of their heads as they lay on the bed. 

Later, Detective-Sergeant Sias Mouton had watched in horror as Prinsloo, his close friend, shot himself in the head in his office in the magistrates’ court. 

Sergeant Nouton said: “I met Thinus at his furniture shop. He stopped me and said I should go to his office and tell them he would be two or three hours late.

“I went to the court and saw him standing in the passage with a 12-gauge, single- barrel shot gun. He told me he had just shot his three children and I am going to shoot myself . . .'”  

LESSONS FOR TODAY

Suicide is not the best way of dealing with one’s problems. It actually causes a lot of pain and anguish to those who remain behind.

 Cases of people ending their lives through suicide are on the rise in the country, with most of the cases being attributed to mental health issues.

 Friends and relatives need to pay particular attention to the state of mind of those people who are encountering or dealing with stressful situations and to get them the assistance they urgently need.

In most cases, the loss of life due to suicide could have been avoided had people sought help.

Some of the suicide cases involve weapons such as guns and this calls for tighter gun control and close monitoring of people who are in possession of such weapons.