An 18-year-old alleged to have shot dead a three-year-old boy in front of his mother has handed himself over to the police in Cape Town.
Police spokesman November Filander said the suspect handed himself over to Manenberg police with his lawyer after 6pm on Wednesday night.
He had been on the run since early Wednesday morning after he had fatally wounded Faeez Wesso in a row with the boy’s mother over a police raid for illegal firearms at his Manenberg shack.
According to the Cape Times, the teen accused the boy’s mother, Mesca Wesso, of informing the police he had illegal firearms in his home, which she denied.
Mesca, 26, said police officers had raided the teen’s backyard shack, and afterwards she had gone there to check whether the police had wrecked it.
She was with her child and found the teenager there with two other men.
He confronted her, accusing her of tipping off the police, and then pointed the gun at her.
“I thought he was joking because he was laughing,” she said.
While still holding the gun in the air, his hand moved and her child, the youngest of three, was shot in the head, she said.
“Faeez fell on a bed on his back. (The teenager) told me to keep quiet and not say anything. I ran out, carrying my son. I was screaming and shouting, I was confused. I gave him to my mother and told her to call an ambulance,” Mesca said.
She returned to the shack a few minutes later, but the teenager had fled.
“I’m heartbroken that this happened to my son. I won’t ever see him again. I can forgive (the suspect) because I don’t think it was his intention to shoot my child, but I won’t forget,” said Wesso.
Filander said the teen would be charged with murder and would appear in the Athlone Magistrate’s Court by Friday.
“The murder weapon is still missing,” said Filander.
The toddler was buried on Wednesday afternoon in terms of Muslim rites, a report said.
Sarah van Wyk, a neighbour who had gone to help after hearing screams, told the Cape Times that the boy had been breathing for about 10 minutes before he died: “It is so bad for a three-year-old, who doesn’t know what is happening around him, to be shot like that. It was sad to see him lying like that on the bed.”
Filander confirmed that the shooting followed a raid for illegal firearms and ammunition by Manenberg police at the teenager’s home.
According to the Cape Times, police had left empty-handed, but a few minutes later they received another call, saying a three-year-old had been shot at the same address they had just raided. He had been hit in the head.
“They found the body of a boy on a bed, next to the house they searched earlier,” Filander said.
- IOL