The son of a senior SA Reserve Bank official, who was assaulted and thrown in a police van while his father lay dying in their driveway, has been awarded R50 000 damages.

The High Court in Pretoria on Friday ordered the minister of police to pay damages to Bjorn Gugger, 29, for his unlawful assault, arrest and detention in 2004.

Acting Judge Henk Havenga, however, reserved judgment in the widowed Rosemary Gugger's R2.3-million loss of support claim against the minister and former police inspector Daniel Pienaar.

The claim follows the death of her husband, Eric (47) who was shot dead by Pienaar outside his Pierre van Ryneveld home in August 2004.

Eric Gugger was waiting outside with his firearm after his son phoned and said he was being chased by hijackers.

Pienaar earlier testified that he and two colleagues were on their way to the police station with two suspects when Bjorn, driving a car without licence plates, raced past them, almost caused an accident and refused to stop.

They had followed Bjorn while he raced through red robots, drove on the wrong side of the road and almost ran down a petrol attendant.

At a house in Pierre van Ryneveld, his two colleagues followed Bjorn inside while Pienaar remained outside.

Pienaar testified that he had believed his life to be in danger when Eric Gugger grabbed him from behind, put a gun against his neck, told him he would be killed if he moved and asked who he was.

According to Pienaar, he had turned around and pushed Eric Gugger out of the way, but fired three shots at the man when he started turning back in his direction with the firearm still in his hand.

Pienaar conceded Eric Gugger might have thought he was a hijacker.

Counsel for Mrs Gugger, Nic Maritz SC, argued that the attack had already been over when Pienaar fired the shots.

He said Pienaar could not under the circumstances have believed that an attack was imminent or that his life was in danger.

He argued that Pienaar, a highly trained and experienced policeman, had acted highly unreasonably and had not been justified in shooting Eric Gugger to protect himself.

He could have fired warning shots or could have shouted at Eric Gugger to drop his gun. It had not been necessary to shoot him, let alone three times.

It was clear that Pienaar had been "fired up" and angry because of the chase and that he had not thought about what he was doing at all, Maritz added.

Counsel for the police, Graham Bester, said the court should not judge Pienaar's actions as an armchair critic in the seclusion of a courtroom, as if Pienaar had time to weigh up the pros and cons of his actions.

He argued that Pienaar had acted in self-defence and had acted reasonably, as any policeman would have done in the situation.

Bester said Bjorn had clearly launched an unlawful attack on a policeman, even though he might have thought he was a hijacker.

Havenga remarked that there seemed to have been a series of misunderstandings, which led to the tragic event.