POLICE ASSAULT CLAIM EMERGES IN REIGER PARK SHOOTING CASE
Jamal Meyer told Boksburg Magistrate’s Court on Tuesday that police beat him severely during his arrest, lodging a brutality allegation that adds a new layer of tension to an already complex murder investigation involving the deaths of two Anti-Gang Unit officers and two civilians.
Meyer, arrested on Sunday, August 16, following an intensive tracing operation, appeared in court and communicated through his attorney, Samkele Kuzani, that he had suffered what he described as a brutal assault at the hands of police. He reported sharp chest pain requiring medical attention. Kuzani asked that the charge sheet be endorsed to allow Meyer to receive care. State prosecutor Leswikane Mashabela did not oppose the medical request, though he expressed skepticism about Meyer’s account of events.
The allegations raise questions about the treatment of detainees in a case that has gripped public attention since the Reiger Park shootings in Ekurhuleni claimed four lives. Constables Thapelo Tlomatsana, 29, and Sphiwe Sibeko, 28, both members of the Anti-Gang Unit, were killed alongside civilians Roleen Lessing and Jaydin Margerman. Police say the officers were conducting crime-prevention patrols when they heard gunshots, drove toward the source, and were allegedly ambushed.
Meyer is the second person charged with murder in the case. The first, 23-year-old Reagan Cheslin Collis, was arrested earlier and is held at Modderbee prison. Police have identified Collis as the alleged gunman. During Tuesday’s proceedings, Kuzani raised a procedural objection to Collis’s detention location, arguing he should be held at a Boksburg correctional facility closer to the court. Mashabela countered that an existing court order permits Collis to remain at Modderbee until a specified date, after which the state will bring a substantive application regarding his continued detention.
Meanwhile, the case has grown more complicated following the emergence of footage reviewed by IOL News. Sources say the footage shows Collis inside his grandmother’s house at the time of the shooting. The video allegedly depicts another man, wearing a dark hoodie and red tracksuit pants, shooting the two women before fleeing in a silver-grey Volkswagen Polo. Collis is then seen confronting the gunman and saying, “I saw you.”
Investigators have suggested the attack was not random. According to the source material, Collis and his associates had a longstanding rivalry with a gang known as the Sour Boys and had received threats from the group hours before the shooting. That context suggests the attack may have been intended to target Collis and his associates, with the officers killed in the course of responding to the incident.
Collis was arrested following a separate operation that recovered two R5 rifles at the KwaDukathole informal settlement in Germiston. He faces four counts of murder, one count of attempted murder, two counts of robbery with aggravating circumstances, and charges relating to the possession of unlicensed firearms and ammunition.
Both suspects are expected to appear together on Tuesday, August 25, for a formal bail application hearing. Whether the court will also address Meyer’s medical and brutality claims at that stage remains an open question for the public and the families of the four people killed.