VIDEO: Cops lost a big brother

A wreath laying ceremony and a memorial service was held on Wednesday for the slain top cop, Lieutenant-Colonel Charl Kinnear.

The Anti-Gang Unit member was gunned down outside his Bishop Lavis home on 18 September.

The ceremony, preceded by a SAPS members parade, was held at Hangar 2, Airwing, 35 Squadron in Belhar.

Kinnear’s sons broke down and had to be consoled by their mother and family members.

Brother Grant Kinnear says when he was born, Charl was 14 years old and after their parents divorced Charl stepped up to take care of him.

“He automatically became my father and my boeta and he was very strict, I think his unit and his team knew that.

“He was silent yet inviting, a thinker, a teacher, an analyst and a friend, but the best of all he was my big brother,” he says.

Grant says Charl would bring his colleagues home to eat around the table, he would treat them the same way he treated his brothers and sisters.

“I realised that to him family is more than blood,” he says.

Western Cape Provincial Police Commissioner Yolisa Matakata says she has been struggling to find words to describe the irreversible implications of Kinnear’s death.

She says she was away at the time of the incident, “but from a distance my heart bled and it still does”.

“The pain associated with this loss is difficult to comprehend; the part of my brain reminds the inconsolable part that Lieutenant-Colonel Charl Kinnear belonged to others too and they are also grieving hence I cast my eyes on Mrs Kinnear and the boys,” she says.

Matakata says the saddest part is that Kinnear did not pass away peacefully, but was ruthlessly killed in front of his home.

“His murder can’t go unpunished. As we all know an investigation is under way into the murder, the investigators are hard at work trying to find those who killed him.

“An attack on a police official is an attack on the state as we all are the same, hence we won’t rest until the perpetrators are behind bars, there has to be justice for Kinnear,” she added.

A former rugby player from Springs, Zane Kilian, has been arrested and charged with Kinnear’s murder, conspiracy to commit murder and illegally tracking his cellphone.

Kilian is a debt collector and also owns a tracking and investigations company.

It is believed Kinnear, 52, was on the brink of exposing various underworld figures and senior cops who were working together in a guns-to-gangs racket.

Screenshots of CCTV footage have emerged, showing a gunman wearing a red hoodie shooting Kinnear in his Toyota Corolla.

The shooter has not been found yet.

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