Johannesburg - Gauteng police have implemented additional strategies in their hunt for a man dubbed “the brick thrower”.
The suspect, who is believed to be mentally unstable, seriously injured both Caden Slabbert, 8, and Marionette Swab last month when he allegedly threw bricks through the windows of the cars they were travelling in.
He is believed to stand on the side of the N12 bridge near The Glen shopping centre in the Oakdene and Glenvista area.
Witnesses say he walks naked around the bridge between the Kliprivier and Comaro roads off-ramp in Joburg south and shows no remorse after pelting large bricks at passing motorists.
Despite having operated in the area for more than a month now, the “brick thrower” is yet to be arrested.
Police insist that they are working around the clock to bring the man to book.
The Joburg metro police department and the SAPS are continuously patrolling the section of the highway, while undercover cops have also been deployed at the spot to track down the man.
Police are also following up tip-offs from the community to find and arrest the suspect.
Swab’s boyfriend, Darrel Badenhorst, who was driving with her on the N12 east at the time, said he saw the man standing on the side of the road before his car was hit and described him as tall, slender and middle-aged.
He said the man did not run away; he did not move from where he was standing after he threw the brick.
Badenhorst said Swab, who was sitting in the passenger seat, had been knocked unconscious and was bleeding from the head after the incident. He
said on Monday that his girlfriend’s condition had improved and that she had come out of a coma.
But she now had to be treated at a rehabilitation centre to learn to walk again.
Caden’s father, Justin Slabbert, said his son’s condition had also improved, but doctors now had to reinsert the piece of the boy’s skull that had to be removed at the time.