Cops have nabbed three people, including a teenager, for a mass shooting in Bishop Lavis, which claimed the lives of seven people, on Thursday night.
Western Cape police commissioner Thembisile Patekile confirmed the arrests and said the suspects were picked up in the area and were in possession of a firearm.
The massacre in Bishop Lavis came just a day after five people were brutally shot dead in a car on the road between Mamre and Atlantis.
In the Lavis shooting, eight people were attacked while they were sitting in a wendy house in Kogelberg Road.
Police spokesperson Brigadier Novela Potelwa said they have since reinforced deployments to stabilise the area.
Potelwa reports: “Police reports from the scene indicate that at approximately 8.40pm an armed suspect entered an informal dwelling in Kogelberg Road and fired several shots at the occupants.
“Seven people were fatally wounded while another was wounded. The ages of the deceased persons are between 24 and 55.”
Potelwa said a multidisciplinary tracing team worked through the night and arrested three suspects aged 17, 24 and 29.
She said the confiscated gun has been sent for ballistic testing to determine if it was used in the commission of any crimes.
Potelwa adds: “The suspects are facing murder, attempted murder and possession of unlicensed firearm charges. They are scheduled to appear in court on Monday.”
She said both the Lavis and Atlantis shooting incidents are believed to be gang related.
In a video which was shot inside the horrific crime scene in Bishop Lavis, two men were found on the bed, four other victims were on the floor, while a man lay outside the wendy house.
Lee-Anne Hendricks, 24, a mother to a one-year-old girl, had been visiting her neighbour when she was killed.
Her distraught mom, Desree Hendricks, 51, explained she was at home when people shouted outside her yard that her daughter had been shot.
The hartseer ma says: “We went to the wendy house which is around the corner and the police had not yet arrived. When we got there, she had died already.
“She was shot in the head. One of the victims, a man, was lying outside the structure.”
A heartbroken Desree said her daughter was a kind person who loved people.
Meanwhile, Gaironesa Williams, 57, said when she received the dreaded call informing her about her brother, Igshaan Madatt, 55, she rushed to Bishop Lavis.
She adds: “I was in Valhalla Park and my sister called me. When I got to the scene, the police were there and they told me they didn’t want me to go in because the forensics experts were busy.”
Subcouncil chairperson, Councillor Angus Mckenzie, claims the murders were gang related.
Mckenzie says: “These murders are part of an ongoing, ever-increasing gang war currently taking place in Valhalla Park and Bishop Lavis.
“These two areas have, on a daily basis, been affected by shootings and murder.”
Mandilakhe Tshwete
www.dailyvoice.co.za
