Cape Town - A young Cape Town girl was shot in the leg on Sunday by gang members who were chasing down a rival - less than a month after her cousin was shot dead in the same street.
Jasmyne Strydom, 13, became the third child shot by gangsters in September in Cape Town. Jasmyne, a Grade 8 pupil at Excelsior High, was shot in the achilles tendon as she visited a shop in Matroosberg Crescent at lunchtime.
The crescent has seen a number of shootings over recent weeks.
Just a few weeks ago Jasmyne’s cousin, Rashid Davids, 19, was shot and killed in the crescent and the family is still battling to come to terms with his death.
In Sunday’s shooting, a 27-year-old man was critically wounded and the police are investigating the circumstances. Both victims were taken to Tygerberg Hospital.
On Sunday, the community buried Enrico Thorne, 22. Last week, Norton Africa was shot and killed, both in Matroosberg Crescent.
Jasmyn’s aunt, Nadia Davids, said she was still coming to terms with the loss of her son last month and had feared for her niece’s life when the shooting started.
“I was at work when Rashid was shot, he was dead by the time I got home. He was standing with his friends when he was shot,” she said.
Davids said minutes after sending Jasmyn to the shop, the gunfire erupted. She knew she could not run after Jasmyne and prayed for her safety.
She had sent her to the shop assuming it was safe as the police were patrolling the area. “She [Jasmyne] was standing in the queue with friends when they started shooting.”
Two gunmen came after a 27-year-old man. They started shooting wildly and one of the bullets hit Jasmyn in the ankle. A friend who was with her said the shop doors closed as the shooting started.
“The sparks were going off around our feet, I was screaming, Jasmyne was crying. I asked them to open the door, but Jasmyn couldn’t walk, she fell over,” her friend said.
Paramedics from the Belhar Fire Department were on the scene within seconds and an ambulance arrived minutes later. The 27-year-old man was shot five times as he tried to escape his assailants. Police spokesman Lieutenant Colonel Andrè Traut said police were investigating the shooting.
Residents said shootings happened in broad daylight and the shooters would make their escape by, running over the Stellenbosch Arterial and into Delft.
* In other incidents involving children in recent weeks, Leeana van Wyk, 6, of Hanover Park, was shot in the head and critically wounded when she got caught in a gun battle near her home in John Downe Walk. Days later, a six-year-old Belhar boy was wounded in the foot during a shooting in Demist Street.
Cape Argus