Pretoria - A former captain in the SAPS, attached to the dog unit, and who was deployed to the Kruger National Park, Skukuza, will have to serve his five-year jail sentence after he shot a visitor to the park in the leg.
Quentin Arlow was earlier convicted of attempted murder and sentenced. However, he turned to the Mpumalanga High Court, sitting in Mbombela, where he appealed against both his conviction and sentence.
Arlow conducted searches with sniffer dogs on vehicles leaving the park in an attempt to curb rhino poaching. He was conducting these services at the Kruger Gate on the day of the incident when a visitor, Last Nkosi, the complainant, left the park.
A security officer, who was working alongside Arlow, opened the gate for Nkosi after Arlow had inspected the vehicle. Almost immediately, Arlow got into a marked police vehicle and chased after Nkosi. He returned about 40 minutes later and told the guard he had followed Nkosi as something seemed suspicious to him.
It was later revealed that Arlow had followed Nkosi’s vehicle for more than 50km from the gate. He caught up with it at Mkhuhlu and stopped next to it. Arlow walked to Nkosi’s vehicle, armed with a firearm, which was discharged while in his hand, and a bullet hit Nkosi’s vehicle in the driver’s door.
It hit Nkosi’s ankle while he was seated in the driver’s seat.
Arlow’s version was that after he got out of his car and while he held the firearm in his hand, Nkosi moved his car in a bid to hit him (Arlow) with it. It was in the process of avoiding being bumped by the vehicle that his firearm discharged.
The court, which convicted Arlow of attempted murder, rejected his version that the gun had gone off accidentally.
On Arlow’s appeal, Judge Takalani Ratshibvumo said the position from which the shot was fired made his version highly improbable.
Pretoria News