Man shot dead after visiting mom

A Port Elizabeth man was killed in a suspected gang-related shooting just minutes after leaving his mother’s house in Eucomus Street, Bethelsdorp, on Saturday night.

The body of Brandon Wicks, 25, was found with a single gunshot to the head near the house at the corner of Eucomus and Independence streets at about 8.35pm.

Police spokeswoman Colonel Priscilla Naidu said Wicks’s mother had gone to investigate after hearing the shot near the house.

“Wicks was found . . . with a gunshot to his head,” she said.

Naidu said detectives at the scene had received a tip-off of firearms being stashed inside a nearby house.

“Investigators from the provincial gang investigation unit immediately followed up,” she said.

“One suspect was seen throwing a Rossi .38 revolver behind a chair . . . a Glock firearm was also found in the washing machine.”

A man, 30, was arrested for illegal possession of a firearm.

In an unrelated gang shooting on Friday night, a man was wounded after shots were fired at him in Kamma Street, Korsten, at 9pm.

“By 2am [yesterday] a 33- year-old man was arrested . . . in Gelvandale, while at 4.30am a 26-year -old man was arrested.”

Both men were charged with attempted murder.

All three suspects in the two cases will appear in the Port Elizabeth Magistrate’s Court today.