The life of a father to seven children changed irrevocably one night when he decided to grab a policewoman's firearm and her colleague shot him. As in all gun stories, there are no winners.

It was a Saturday in Muldersdrift, about 30km northwest of Johannesburg, when Leendert Johannes Cloete (59), known to his friends as Len, made a choice. Why he made it remains known perhaps only to those present that night on 13 November 2021 when he was shot in the head by a young South African Police Service officer.

Len, a colossus of a bodybuilder, was naked when the police arrived at the Misty Hills Country Hotel, Conference Centre and Spa where he and his wife of five years, Chantal, and two friends were spending the weekend.

The rustic complex is near the Cradle of Humankind in the heart of the Kromdraai valley near the Crocodile River. It is an expensive hotel, but Len and Chantal were used to a certain standard of living.

That night there had been some issue with Len insisting on checking in with his gun and the manager requesting him not to. The Cloetes countered that it was due to confusion about the number of rooms. It no longer matters.

Len was already a father of four older children and dad to Chantal's two daughters from a previous marriage when the couple welcomed a boy, Esteban, into...