This Flats gangster was gunned down by four men during morning peak hour near a busy Cape Flats taxi rank.
Residents say Hanover Park taxi marshall Shamiem Nell, 25, cheated death once before but wasn’t as lucky the second time when he was ambushed by members the Mongrels gang.
Shamiem, a member of the Americans gang, was killed on the corner of Hanover Park Avenue and Surran Road shortly after 7am where he was waiting for his taxi to arrive.
Witnesses say four men fled the scene after the cold-blooded shooting on the mist-shrouded corner.
A resident who knew the victim told the Daily Voice about the first time Shamiem was targeted.
“On Monday, members of the Mongrels gang opened fire on him but then he managed to run away,” says the man. “He was very lucky that time but this morning he wasn’t so lucky.
“He was standing on the corner waiting for his lift, as he does every morning.
“Then four guys snuck up on either side of him – two on the left and two on the right – and he had nowhere to run.”
He says Shamiem recently started working on the Grassy Park route because of the war between the two gangs.
“He just got a child a few months ago and he had to earn a living in spite of the tension. So he started working on the Grassy Park line to ensure his safety,” says the witness.
“He was a good man who just got involved in the wrong things.”
Scores of residents crowded along the busy road were shocked when they saw a trail of blood gushing from the wound in the marshall’s head.
One resident was heard saying: “This is terrible. This feud is far from over.”
While his family was too traumatised to talk, friends and neighbours filled Shamiem’s Soetwater Court home to offer their condolences.
Police spokesperson, Lieutenant Colonel Andre Traut, says cops have opened a murder docket.
“A 25-year-old man was fatally wounded in the head while on his way to work as a taxi guard at the Hanover Park taxi rank. Witnesses saw four men fleeing the scene immediately after the shooting,” he says.
“The motive for the murder is yet unknown although gangsterism is not excluded.”
No arrests have been made.
Shamiem’s shooting comes less than 24 hours after members from the Mongrels gang opened fire on an former Americans gang member’s home.
Tuesday’s Hanover Park shooting, just after 9am, saw three men fire several shots at a house in Turfburg Walk.
A resident says the men who were each armed “emptied their guns” before fleeing the scene.
“An ex-American gangster lives at the house but he wasn’t there at the time,” says the woman.
“However the three men started shooting at a member of the Chico Boys Gang who was sitting outside the house at the time.”
A source close to the investigation says “more than 10 shots were fired” but no one was injured.
No arrests have been made in this matter either.
This is the latest in a string of brutal murders in Cape Flats streets.
Thirteen-year-old Elsies River teen Jozwill Cloete, was enjoying the first day of his school holidays last month when two rival gangs opened fire on each other, killing him in the crossfire; a 20-year-old woman was injured.
It was a bloody month-end which also saw the fatal shooting of Yaseen Sparks, 16, in gang-related violence in Bonteheuwel.
In separate shooting incidents in March, Dale Jordaan, 15, and Shaquille Jacobs, 15, as well as Sergio Domingo, 21, from Lavender Hill, also died when members of the Junky Funky Kids opened fire on them from a speeding car.
*This article was published on p4 in the Daily Voice.