Three victims, two accused, one released, and a community on edge.
This was the mood in Reiger Park on Monday as yet another family mourned the loss of one its members and two men appeared in the Boksburg Magistrate’s Court in connection with one of three killings that have rocked the neighbourhood in the past week.
* Gavin Adams, 39, was shot in Meadowdale on Wednesday while dropping his wife off at work. Adams was killed; his wife Leila is still in hospital.
* Johnny Jacobs, 47, was killed the next day, sitting in his parked car outside his girlfriend’s house in Reiger Park. Jacobs died on the scene; Diana Adams is still in hospital.
* Anthony Williams, 34, was killed on Sunday night while driving from Reiger Park to his home in Jeppestown. He was alone in the vehicle.
Amid it all are rumours of gang associations, counter-claims from acquaintances, and all the gossip of a small community.
Police are still refusing to say if the murders are linked or even gang related, but it appears that the victims were targeted by association.
A family spokesman for Adams refused to comment, but community members said the victim was linked through family ties to the Dogans gang.
Jacobs, an ex-cop, earned the nickname “Piet Skiet” while still in the force for his love of guns.
He was suspended from the service and served a 10-year jail sentence. Nobody could, or would, say what his crime was.
Though media reports have linked Jacobs to the Sour Boys, the Dogans’ rival gang, associates said he was a lone ranger.
“He was just Piet Skiet. If you came with your fists, he had his fists. If you came with a gun, he had his gun.”
Still, residents say it was known that Adams and Jacobs did not get along.
Williams, meanwhile, was originally a Pretoria boy with social ties to Reiger Park.
“He knew everybody,” said an associate. “So he was friends with the Dogans, but he wasn’t one of them.”
Police have made two arrests so far, linked to Jacobs’s murder.
Xavier Malgas, 27, was arrested just hours after Jacobs was killed, but was released Monday afternoon after the court refused to prosecute.
William Orr, 51, was arrested on Saturday. He appeared in court briefly on Monday on a murder charge. But community members doubt his involvement in Jacobs’s death.
Orr was due to return to court on Tuesday morning. - The Star