Baby Zahnia Woodward’s mother, Cindy, collected signatures for a petition she brought before the Western Cape High Court on Friday in a bid to prevent her child’s alleged killers from getting bail.
Six-month-old Zahnia was in the arms of her father, Bradley Robyn, when a bullet hit her head in the late afternoon on December 30, 2016.
Cindy, from Ocean View, burst into tears after four of the five people accused of murdering her baby and attempting to murder 11 others were denied bail, News24 reported.
"I'm crying because I am happy," Cindy said after Judge Mushtak Parker found it would not be in the interests of justice to release Christopher September, Larry Johnson, Taswill Kriel and Morné May ahead of their trial.
In their bail application, the accused argued that the State's case was weak and that they had been behind bars awaiting trial for more than 18 months.
According to the State's summary of facts, September, Johnson, Kriel and May had been driving in Johnson's VW Golf in Ocean View. Each of the men was armed with a gun and opened fire on people as they sat on a road and a nearby park.
After firing a volley of bullets, they allegedly shot at two people who attempted to stop them as they fled, the prosecution maintained.
Six-month-old Zahnia and her father, Bradley Robyn, had been at the park. She was hit by a bullet while on her father's arm. At the time, Robyn reached for her dummy after she spat it out and the bullet hit her head. Her father was also shot in his thigh but still managed to drive Zahnia to the hospital.
Robyn and four other people were hit during the shooting. Six others were also shot at but escaped uninjured.
The car was only discovered several days later. According to the State, Simaney Kindo and Mirriam Johnson had hidden the vehicle from police to help the alleged gunmen evade prosecution.
Kindo entered into a plea and sentencing agreement and was handed a four-year sentence for obstructing the course of justice. Johnson, accused number five, is currently out on bail.
A frustrated Cindy had been angered ahead of the bail application that the defence team in the matter argued that there was no public interest in the case.
“It felt like they would get bail and that scared me. Even hearing their applications - three of the accused said they would like bail so they can be able to provide for their children.
“What about my child that they killed? Who do I have to work to provide for?”