Cape Town - A 12-year-old boy bled to death after he was shot allegedly by the owner of the house he and an adult accomplice were trying to break into.
The accomplice, a man in his 30s, told the Daily Voice the youngster bled to death as they ran away.
On Monday, police arrested the alleged burglar at his Fisantekraal home, where he had tried to hang himself.
Lieutenant Colonel Andrè Traut said a case of discharging a firearm in a public area has been opened against the boy’s alleged shooter: “The firearm has been confiscated.”
Residents say deceased Clinton Boonzaaier was an orphan who had lived with his aunt after his mom passed away more than a year ago.
The boy didn’t have contact with his father.
The family said the child went away with the man on Saturday night.
According to residents, the man is a well-known thief who allegedly used young boys to help him break into homes.
Speaking from inside the police van on Monday morning, the arrested man said he and the boy were in Uitzicht in the early hours of Sunday morning.
Asked what they were doing there, he wouldn’t say.
“We were in Uitzicht when a white man started shooting at us,” he said.
“I ran away with Clinton, and four shots went off. The little one was hit in the upper leg, but we did not stop, I ran on and he bled a lot.
“We crossed the Main Road and I helped him through the wire fence.
“The boy was bleeding so much that I took off his trousers and his shoes, and I left it there at the fence.
“I carried him in my arms till by the river, and bound up the wound with his sweater.
“I left him there and ran the four kilometres to Fisantekraal to get help, but when we got back he was stiff and cold.”
Resident Heinrick Hendricks, 42, said they found the boy dead, “lying on his back between the reeds in the river”.
“Clinton and I still went to go catch fish on Saturday for Easter,” said Hendricks.
“He was a good (kid), he still attended the last day of school at Trevor Manuel Primary on Friday. I think he just had the wrong friends.”
Daily Voice