The sister of a man who broke the windows of his former school and attacked police officers was concerned about his sudden change of behaviour before the incident.
Derrick Bopape, 25, from the village of Mmametlhake in Mpumalanga, was shot in the arm by police after he broke the windows at Mmametlhake Secondary School, after demanding to see the principal on Thursday.
A video which went viral on social media shows Bopape breaking several windows at the school with bricks and turning his attack on the police when they arrived at the scene.
Yvonne Bopape, 34, said she noticed over a week ago that her brother, an unemployed man who completed his matric in 2015, had been wearing a jacket and tracksuit top despite it being very hot.
She said Bopape would also stop whatever he was doing and stare at nothing for minutes, seemingly lost in thought.
"I called my big brother and sister, and asked them to come to the house so that we can speak about Derrick's behaviour. We were going to meet on Friday," she said.
Shot Mmametlhake Secondary School window breaker 'was not himself'
The sister of a man who broke the windows of his former school and attacked police officers was concerned about his sudden change of behaviour before the incident.
Derrick Bopape, 25, from the village of Mmametlhake in Mpumalanga, was shot in the arm by police after he broke the windows at Mmametlhake Secondary School, after demanding to see the principal on Thursday.
A video which went viral on social media shows Bopape breaking several windows at the school with bricks and turning his attack on the police when they arrived at the scene.
Yvonne Bopape, 34, said she noticed over a week ago that her brother, an unemployed man who completed his matric in 2015, had been wearing a jacket and tracksuit top despite it being very hot.
She said Bopape would also stop whatever he was doing and stare at nothing for minutes, seemingly lost in thought.
"I called my big brother and sister, and asked them to come to the house so that we can speak about Derrick's behaviour. We were going to meet on Friday," she said.
The family described Bopape as a loner who seldom spoke and spent his time writing music or collecting cans for recycling. "We don't know what made him go to the school, he has never gone there," said his sister.
Prior to going on the rampage, Bopape had approached grade 10 pupil Phumelelo Masha and demanded his school bag.
Masha, 20, said when he arrived at the school, Bopape was near a flight of stairs inside the school's premises. "He just said: 'Give me that bag, n***a'," Masha said.
When Masha asked him why he wanted his bag, Bopape reportedly responded angrily: "I said give me that f***ing bag."
Masha said he then ran away but Bopape started looking for him and asking to see the principal.
Pupils then started mocking and booing him, with teachers locking the doors of the school's admin block.
Sgt Tlaki Matemane was among the group of police officers who responded to the call by teachers at the school.
Matemane, who was in the passenger seat of the police van, used a small cooler bag that she uses to carry her lunch in to fend off the bricks thrown by Bopape.
"If it wasn't for this little cooler bag of mine, I would have been dead. I hid my face with it," she said.
She was hit by two bricks. One broke the window, hitting her on the upper shoulder. Matemane, who could be seen falling out of the moving police van, said she was lucky to be alive.
Mmametlhake police said Bopape was transferred to an Emalahleni hospital for an operation on his arm.