Johannesburg - The South African Police Service in Johannesburg has arrested a 40-year-old man for attempted murder after he allegedly shot four people in the city centre.
Police said the man was apprehended through the help of the community.
“It is alleged that he shot four victims in the streets. Three male victims were shot in the lower body while a [fourth] female victim was shot in the upper body and lower body,” Johannesburg central SAPS spokesperson Captain Xoli Mbele said in a statement on Monday.
“The suspect was holding a beer bottle in his hand when he started to shoot at random. The victims were taken to hospital where two were treated and discharged on the same day. The motive for the shooting is not yet known.”
Mbele said the firearm used in the shooting and live ammunition was recovered.
“It will be sent to ballistic testing to ascertain if it was used in the commission of other serious and violent crimes. Investigation is under way and the suspect is appearing today in the Johannesburg magistrate’s court.”
Station commander of the Johannesburg Central Police Station, Brigadier Ivan Perumal lauded the “good working relationship” between the community and the police which led to the apprehension of the suspect.
He said this relationship would help curtail rampant crime in the Johannesburg central business district.
In January, eleven people were injured in a mass shooting incident in Johannesburg, just hours after another shooting at Poppy's Restaurant in the nearby surburb of Melville claimed two lives.
IOL