Gunmen shoot three in drive-by attack

Cape Town -120821 - Kia Smith was injured in the shootout when a bullet grazed her right eyebrow. A shooting occurred in Heideveld when a car stopped outside a house in Longkloof Circle and people inside opened fire on a number of people standing near a house. Four people were injured with wounds predominently on the arms and legs. Police and paramedics cordained off the area. REPORTER: DANEEL KNOETZE. PICTURE: THOMAS HOLDER

Cape Town -120821 - Kia Smith was injured in the shootout when a bullet grazed her right eyebrow. A shooting occurred in Heideveld when a car stopped outside a house in Longkloof Circle and people inside opened fire on a number of people standing near a house. Four people were injured with wounds predominently on the arms and legs. Police and paramedics cordained off the area. REPORTER: DANEEL KNOETZE. PICTURE: THOMAS HOLDER

Published Aug 22, 2012

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Cape Town - Three people were shot and wounded in Heideveld when alleged gang members fired shots from a car.

The shooting follows Sunday night’s killing of four teenagers in Uitsig. Witnesses at the scene of the latest shooting did not believe that the two incidents were related.

At about 11.15am, a group of five men slowed down in a vehicle outside 67 Longkloof Circle. In drive-by fashion, two men, a passenger in the back seat and one in the front, rolled down their windows and opened fire on a group of eight friends standing on the pavement.

The shooting lasted for a matter of seconds, with the vehicle from which the shots were fired not coming to a halt.

“It was over too quick. I couldn’t identify any of them,” said a witness, who declined to give his name.

“All I could do was fall flat on the ground and wait for them to speed off. But the shooting seemed so random, it could have been any one of us who got hit.”

The victims in the shooting were identified by bystanders as Lucien George, 26, Faiz Erasmus, 21, and Kia Smith, 22. George was shot in his right arm and right leg, Erasmus was shot in his left leg and Smith sustained a graze from a bullet to her forehead.

Police spokesman Lieutenant-Colonel André Traut said they were taken by ambulance to GF Jooste Hospital. It was unclear how many shots were fired, but police demarcated the sites of seven cartridges.

Residents on the scene said they knew who the assailants were and kept repeating two names.

Diela Johnson, who is George’s stepmother, said: “What’s more is that I saw them this morning driving [in Duinefontein Road]. They flashed their gun at me. I went straight to a policeman, pointed out the car and told them there was trouble on the way. They just laughed and ignored me.”

Johnson and her daughter, Faika, said the suspect (whom they say is known to the whole community) had a vendetta against a group of young men that dated back more than a decade.

“When they were children, [name withheld] lost a finger in a fight and since then he has always vowed to take his revenge,” said Johnson, adding that the schoolboy rivalry had now become embroiled in the turf war between the Junky Funky Kids and the Terrible Westsiders gangs.

“But now look at this. Three attempted murders. Two murders in November and a poor man paralysed by [name withheld]. This is enough, and eventually someone will get their revenge on him.”

Traut said three cases of attempted murder had been opened, adding that the motive for the shooting was being investigated. He called on anyone with information to call the Manenberg police station at 021 699 9400. - Cape Argus

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