Johannesburg - Relatives of a four-year-old Reiger Park boy killed in a hijacking have identified one of the alleged assailants, Beeld newspaper reported on Tuesday.
One of the hijackers reportedly often begged from the family.
Taegrin Morris's aunt Chantal Morris told the Afrikaans daily she and her teenage daughter recognised one of the hijackers as the beggar.
“My mother gave a warm plate of food to that crook almost every night,” said Morris.
“We have also given him warm clothing on a cold evening when he came and asked for help.”
A neighbour told Beeld the police had been told about the beggar.
Police were not available to comment on the report on Tuesday.
Taegrin Morris died after being dragged for a long distance behind a hijacked car on Saturday night. He was travelling in a VW Golf with his mother, father, and sister in Reiger Park, on the East Rand, when the family was approached by three men.
Lt-Col Khensani Magoai said they ordered his father, mother and sister out of the car, but the four-year-old was left in his seat belt.
The hijackers drove away dragging the boy as he was hanging outside the car door from his safety belt.
“He was dragged along until Boksburg. The hijackers then abandoned the vehicle and the boy was dead,” Magoai said.
Gauteng police said earlier on Tuesday that investigations into the hijacking were continuing after a man was questioned.
“The man was not taken into custody as a suspect and was questioned as an ordinary citizen,” Colonel Noxolo Kweza said.
On Monday, Kweza said police hoped the man questioned would help their investigation.
She denied another report that a man linked to the hijacking had handed himself over.
Police had offered a R50 000 reward for information on the hijacking.
Sapa