LEBOGANG SEALE
‘ I have been shot!” With these words, a hysterical Lerel Wayne Smith collapsed in front of his aunt and her 12-year-old son.
Connie Smith, 48 – the aunt – dashed out of the house to seek help from the neighbours. Among the first neighbours to respond was Sonia Adams, who had been rattled by the sound of gunshots.
As she approached the crime scene, she was met by a wailing Smith rushing out of the gate, clutching her head and pointing inside the house.
An anxious Adams ran into the house and touched a bleeding Lerel on his hand to feel if he still had a pulse. There was none.
“I called out his name and shook him. He just lay there silently,” she said.
This is how relatives and neighbours recounted the last moments of Lerel’s life after he had been shot by a man said to be his close friend.
The pair and a third friend – all aged 21 and from Eldorado Park – are said to have quarrelled before Lerel was shot dead shortly before 2pm yesterday.
According to Lerel’s uncle Melvin, moments before the shooting, the youngster had gone to Connie’s house, which is opposite a block of flats.
He left immediately without saying a word. As he came out of the yard, he was met by one of his friends, allegedly brandishing a gun.
A terrified Lerel turned back and ran into the house. His friend fired and struck Lerel in his back. He managed to run into the house, where he found Connie watching TV with her 12-year-old son.
Connie said: “I heard three gunshots, followed by screams outside our house. I stood up to see what was happening. As I was getting out of the house, Lerel walked into me. He was shouting and saying ‘Auntie, I have been shot!’
“I tried to speak to him, but he fell down and became silent. He was bleeding a lot.”
Lerel’s alleged murderer and another man tried to escape, but were chased and cornered by residents.
Police spokesman Lieutenant-Colonel Lungelo Dlamini said detectives had recovered an unlicensed firearm from one of the suspects.
According to one of Lerel’s relatives, Melon Segal, when the area became crime infested and developed a history of drug peddling, she had to move to another settlement.
“There is too much crime here. It’s not a good place to raise your children. Young children are fighting and walking around with drugs and guns. Parents are tired and don’t know what to do anymore”.
Segal claimed the police were doing nothing to curb the scourge.
As news of Lerel’s shooting spread rapidly, more than 20 relatives streamed into the house.
The sight of the youngster’s body sprawled on a pool of blood was too much for many.
Eyes bloodshot, they embraced each other, sobbing.
As the body was being loaded onto a forensic van, Lerel’s inconsolable mother, Lorraine Smith, pulled away from relatives and a policewoman who were comforting her.
“Don’t close him in. Don’t leave mommy, my boy. Don’t leave me. Leave him alone. He is my child,” she screamed, her sobs moving other relatives to tears.
A huge crowd of curious onlookers looked on, some peering from windows and through narrow holes in fences.
Relatives and neighbours described Lerel, who was a popular barber in the area, as “a friendly and lovely boy”.