A relative of two young nephews shot dead by unknown gunmen on a Lavender Hill sports field on Tuesday night has spoken to the Cape Times about the incident.
Mark Nicholson said nephews Shane Boesak, 27, a backyard dweller in Lavender Hill, and Alfonso Davids, 23, of Lavender Hill’s Tiny Court, were shot dead by four men.
Explaining that the victims were his wife’s two brother’s sons, Nicholson said Boesak and Davids were walking with two friends over the Blode Street field after 10pm on Tuesday night when the incident happened.
“Four guys came around the St Mark’s Anglican Church and two of the guys shot the two of them.
"There were people who heard shots and saw the two of them falling on the ground and the four (shooters) running away,” said Nicholson.
Two people who had been walking with Boesak and Davids over the field had managed to to run away, he said.
“Shane was shot through the heart once and Alfonso was shot about 17 times on different parts of his body.
“I think the reason he was shot so many times is that he probably recognised them (the shooters),” said Nicholson.
He added that he was not sure whether the shooting was gang-related.
But some residents mentioned that it could have been members of the Junkie Funkies who shot them, he said, as the Funkies and Mongrels, of which Boesak was a member, “were in a bit of a war”.
Nicholson said Boesak had not been married but was the father of two boys aged 10 and 3.
Davids had not been married and had no children, said Nicholson, who added that the victims’ parents had not taken their deaths well.
SAPS spokesperson Sinathi Joni said: “The circumstances surrounding a shooting incident that took place in Lavender Hill, Steenberg, yesterday (Tuesday), at 10.52pm, during which two male victims aged 23 and 28 got fatally wounded are under investigation.
“A double murder case has been registered with no arrests made at this stage.”