Bentley Rudman

Bentley Rudman (1955 - 2006)

Brief overview:

Bentley (51), and his colleague, Johan Munnik (17), were driving in their employees van, when police started firing shots at the vehicle on around 14th September 2005. Bentley was hit 11 times.

Valerie Gerber, Rudman's sister, has been looking for answers as to what happened. "How did they know who was in that bakkie? The bakkie is a company registered vehicle, and it was pitch dark. Nobody knew Bentley was in that van", she said. She also claims Rudman was threatened hours before his death.

Johan Munnik said that the police made no attempt to stop our vehicle. The moment we pulled away, was when the first shots rang out. "The vehicle was hit several times. Bentley was first in the right leg, we wanted to get help so he kept driving. Later there were about eight police vehicles that chased us, but they never tried to stop us with their flashing lights, or pull us over."

Johan also said, "Then a shot hit him in the back of the neck and another through the ribs. Bentley said he knew he was dying."

The bakkie came to rest against a telephone pole. When Johan got out of the van he was surrounded by police who kept on shooting. He was then handcuffed and loaded into a police van.

A colleague of Bentley's, a Mr. Dup du Plessis, said that when he arrived at the scene around 00.30, the police were still shooting, but no one allowed him near the vehicle to check if he was still alive.

When the ambulance arrived on the scene 90 minutes later, Bentley was dead.

According to Bentley's family, they were initially told he was wanted for the murder of two policemen in 1988 in the Cape. However. spokesperson for the Limpop police claimed that Bentley was being sued, and on a charge for attempted murder and assault in Hammanskraal and KwaZulu-Natal respectively, and not for murder of members of the police.

Spokesperson for the independent complaints directorate, who are investigating the incident, Mr. Moses Dlamini, said they could confirm the incident had taken place and that the matter was being investigated, "We're not prepared to say more now."

No further updates can be found.

Brief Biography:

• Other Victims/Family
• Funeral/Memorial
• The Street/Suburb
• The Region (Land disputes, other incidents etc.)

Attack Details:

• Date and time of attack
• Weapons
• Items Stolen
• Investigative officer/SAPS Case No:
• Torture, Gratuitous violence
• Indications of Hate Crime? Threats etc.

Perpetrator details:

• Number and Descriptions
• Arrests
• Name/s and age/s of Perpetrator/s
• Country of origin of Perpetrator/s
• Trial/Conviction

Additional Biographical Information:

Links to Media articles:

• https://www.geni.com/documents/view?doc_id=6000000188262120885