Johannesburg -
Arrests have yet to be made in connection with the hijacking which led to the death of a four-year-old boy in Reiger Park, Gauteng police said on Wednesday.
“There is no update (on the case),” Colonel Noxolo Kweza said.
Taegrin Morris died after being dragged for a long distance behind a hijacked car on Saturday night.
The Citizen newspaper reported on Wednesday that Grant Esterhuizen, the Morris family spokesman, said a man had been taken in for questioning after an identity parade was held on Tuesday.
“Chantel (Taegrin's mother) identified someone in a line-up and another person was taken in for questioning. Police are getting a lot of leads and are following up,” Esterhuizen was quoted as saying.
The Times newspaper also reported on Wednesday that the family of a man who appeared in the identification parade said that he had been cleared and would be released on Wednesday.
“He has been involved in gangsterism but has never been into hijacking,” the family member told the newspaper.
Police could not be reached for comment on the two reports but said on Tuesday they would make arrests soon.
“We are confident that we will be making an arrest pretty soon,” Kweza said at the time.
On Tuesday, Kweza declined to comment on reports that one of the alleged hijackers was pointed out in an identity parade.
She also she denied a report on Tuesday that a man linked to the hijacking had handed himself over. She said a man questioned about the crime was not arrested.
Taegrin Morris was travelling in a VW Golf with his mother, father, and sister in Reiger Park when three men approached them.
“They ordered (the father), his wife and daughter to get out of the vehicle,” Lt-Col Khensane Magoai said at the weekend.
“The four-year-old was left in his safety belt. They (the hijackers) got in the car and drove away.”
Magoai said it was unclear how it happened but the boy was then dragged along, hanging outside the car door from his seat belt.
“He was dragged along until Boksburg. The hijackers then abandoned the vehicle and the boy was dead.”
Police on Tuesday doubled the reward offered for information that would lead to the arrest of Taegrin Morris's killers.
“We have increased the reward to R100 000, from R50 000,” Kweza said at the time. - Sapa