Cape Town – The 47-year-old man arrested for allegedly stabbing a 5-year-old boy in the chest while he went shopping with his mother at the Waterstone Village Mall in Somerset West on Monday allegedly assaulted two other children at the weekend.
However, no charges were initially laid against the 47-year-old, who will appear in the Somerset West Magistrate's Court on Wednesday.
Police spokesperson Noloyiso Rwexana confirmed on Tuesday that the same man allegedly assaulted a 10-year-old girl at the Waterstone Village Mall around 9.52am on Saturday, Netwerk24 reported.
The police were called to the scene by an unknown man, but the girl's family didn't want to lay charges. But after Monday's incident, said Rwexana, the family reported Saturday's incident to the police.
The 47-year-old man allegedly also slapped a 10-year-old girl in the face at the Heldervue shopping centre on Friday. A charge was later laid at the police station.
Cheryl Graham said she and her daughter visited the Heldervue Spar when the man, who reportedly lives in the area and is a regular client at the centre, approached them and asked "if the girl wanted to go and play".
"He later slapped her in the face and I tried to hold him back, whereafter staff in the shop subdued him," Graham said.
Initially thinking it was an "isolated incident", she later informed the police about the incident.
Monday's incident occurred at 9.15am while a mother and her two children were walking in the Waterstone Village Mall.
“Both children were inside a shopping trolley, with the 5-year-old boy sitting in the front. The assailant walked towards the trolley, took out a knife and stabbed the boy in the chest.
"The mother intervened with security officials helping to apprehend the assailant. The baby was unharmed,” said police spokesperson Hein Hendricks.
A shocked witness detailed the incident on Facebook: “By the grace of God the perpetrator apprehended. Small boy stabbed with knife. Everyone badly shaken up here. Boy okay, though, and receiving medical attention.”
The Helderberg Basin News Facebook page lauded the security guards who apprehended the individual.
“I just want to praise the reaction of the Waterstone Security for their incredible reaction.
“He recognised the man and was just in time to see the man approaching the child that was with his mother, and took him down as he was about to stab this child.
“The knife did touch the boy, but with the force of the take-down, the knife was averted from the boy and he was slightly cut. The mother of this child remarked that ‘if it was not for your guard, my child would have been dead’.”