Durban - Two teenage girls and a man were shot in a drive-by shooting in Wentworth, south of Durban, in the early hours of Sunday morning.
According to Ursula Phillips, the aunt of Trenton Lochenberg, 23, he was seated in his white Golf with friends Rodelle Sewell, 17, and Tiara Leiah, 16, in a parking lot in Alabama Road.
Phillips said that an unknown white Polo had driven past the Golf and that one of the occupants had fired shots from the passenger seat.
The bullets went through the passenger and driver’s side doors of the Golf.
Bullets also struck the fender and door frame.
The girls realised they had been shot when they saw blood.
A friend of Lochenberg then helped him into the passenger seat and drove the three of them to Wentworth Hospital.
One of the bullets struck Lochenberg in his side, becoming lodged in his stomach.
He was expected to undergo surgery on Monday.
Sewell, shot in the right knee, underwent surgery to clean the wound and check for bone fractures.
Leiah, the mother of a one-year-old baby, was shot in the knee.
She was discharged with a plaster cast on her left leg.
Phillips said the shooting was not gang- or drug-related.
She said Lochenberg, who worked part-time at the refinery, had left home at about midnight after attending a family function.
“When we got to bed, one of the family members heard the gunshots. We later received a message that he had been shot. We are in shock. Police must find the shooters,” she said.
Speaking to the Daily News, Ronelle Stoffels, Sewell’s mother, said both girls were in pain.
“They were both seated in the back seat. My daughter was sitting behind the passenger seat.
“This is so unexpected. What did they do to deserve this? They are not gangsters. The shooters were cowards,” she said.
Leiah’s brother, Preston Jacobs, said he was shocked to hear the news and that he was glad his sister was alive.
Police spokeswoman, Captain Nqobile Gwala, said charges of attempted murder had been opened for investigation by Wentworth SAPS.
Gwala said the victims had been shot in Alabama Road by unknown gunmen.
The motive is unknown.
Police expect to make arrests soon.
Daily News