Five people – including a three-year-old boy – miraculously survived a gun attack while sitting in their car.
The red VW Beetle came under a hail of gunfire when it was shot up by a gang of at least five armed men.
The toddler’s father saved his son’s life by grabbing the boy and forming a human shield around him as bullets ripped through the car.
“I didn’t hear footsteps, just gunshots, and the suspects didn’t talk as they were shooting. All I thought was to cover my son and protect him from the hail of bullets,” the man tells the Daily Voice.
One of the injured men, Denver Finck, turns 19 on Wednesday. But instead of celebrating his birthday the young man – who was shot in the neck and back – faces the grim prospect that he may never be able to walk again.
Denver’s friend Jean-Pierre Pick, 20, was shot in the arm and a third man was shot in the leg.
The fourth adult in the car somehow escaped without even a scratch.
The friends were smoking a hookah pipe in a parked car in Ouplaas Crescent in Wesbank, Delft, when they suddenly came under attack just after 9pm on Monday.
The shooting happened less than 48 hours after three men from the same area were gunned down near Voorbrug High School in Delft.
It is not yet known if the shootings are linked.
Denver was sitting on the left side of the vehicle closest to the suspects as they opened fire.
The teenager’s father Gary Finck, 55, says his neighbourhood has become a warzone.
“No one is safe in the area, you can’t walk at night – from 7.30 bullets start flying,” he says.
“These gangsters are shooting innocent people like my son and his friends.”
Gary says residents are fed up with the gangsterism and drugs that are killing their community.
“A lot of people have been shot in the area and the police are doing nothing about it,” he adds.
“This is a ruthless crime and people must stand together and fight these thugs.”
However, the concerned father insists his son is not involved in crime.
“Denver is not involved in gangsterism or drugs,” Gary says.
The incident occurred directly outside Jean-Pierre’s family home.
His father Trevor was watching a movie in the living room with his wife when they heard the sound of gunshots.
“After the gunshot, a flare went up,” Trevor says.
“I was too scared to go outside and I peeped through the window.
“Moments later my son stormed in not realising he had been shot in the arm.
“He came to tell us about Denver who was critically injured.
“By the time I went to the car, the suspects had fled already.
“We carried Denver inside the house and then called the ambulance.”
Gary fears his son will be left crippled after the attack.
“He said he couldn’t feel his legs, a bullet hit his nerve but the doctors haven’t specified what will happen next as he is waiting for an operation.
“My youngest son could have died in this senseless shooting.
“And we found a bullet still lodged in the jacket he wore on Monday night.”
Police spokesman Captain FC van Wyk says police are investigating whether the incident is gang-related.
Meanwhile – less than an hour after the Wesbank shooting – another man was shot in an unrelated incident in nearby Delft.
Marco Jacobs, 22, was struck in the hand while walking in Schipol Road in the Hague at 10pm on Monday.
“I was walking when I was shot and they hit my hand,” Marco says.
His mom, who did not want to be identified, says she is sick of people targeting her children.
“A few years ago my eldest son was shot dead and now my youngest,” she tells the Daily Voice.
“My son is not involved in any criminal activities.”
Cops confirm the victim was cleaning up in his backyard when he was approached by two men he knew.
The men suddenly pulled out a firearm and shot him in the hand.
He subsequently identified the two men and they were arrested a short while later.
They will appear in the Bellville Magistrates’ Court on Thursday on a charge of attempted murder.
*This article was published in the Daily Voice