As senior police officials on Tuesday visited the families of three youngsters killed in a weekend shooting which rocked the Bethelsdorp community, investigators are trying to establish exactly why that particular house was targeted.
Ruaan Willemse, 8, Deacon van Rooyen, 14, and Chadwin Calvert, 17, were visiting at a house in Booysen Park when they were gunned down just after 9pm on Friday.
Ruaan and Deacon died at the scene, while Chadwin died in hospital later.
Two gunmen – their faces covered with scarves – entered the house at the corner of Capulet and Heratio streets and opened fire on the seven people inside. The motive is still unknown.
Since the attack, several operations have been launched in a bid to apprehend the killers.
This includes the deployment of the heavily armed intervention team, comprising members of the National Intervention Unit, Tactical Response Team and Public Order Policing Unit, who were sent to the Bay in October as part of an operation to track down wanted and dangerous suspects.
Mount Road cluster commander Major-General Thembisile Patekile – flanked by a team of senior police managers – visited the victims’ families on Tuesday.
Patekile pleaded with residents to come forward with information.
“It is such a callous act and we want answers,” he said.
“We are searching for these men and are working around the clock.
“For men to walk into the house and just start shooting is total madness. We are coming and we will get you [killers].
“The community needs to stand up and help us find these men.”
On November 2, President Cyril Ramaphosa launched the Anti-Gang Unit in Hanover Park in the Western Cape as part of the national anti-gang strategy.
The unit is also expected to be launched in the Eastern Cape and Gauteng.
Patekile said he was unable to say when the unit would be rolled out in the province as the project was run by the national office.
Chadwin’s distraught father, Charlton Calvert, 41, said he had been alerted to the murders by a friend who lived in the area.
“We rushed to the house and I went inside. I saw the bodies lying there. I froze and didn’t know what to do.
“He [Chadwin] was lying there, struggling to breathe.
“I kept my wife outside and wouldn’t let her go inside.
“The scene and seeing those bodies still plays over in my head.”
He said they noticed a car following them as they were rushing Chadwin to hospital.
“We are not sure if this is linked to the shooting.
“We were jumping red lights to get there.
“The car that was following us was right behind us the entire time.
“I am now worried for the safety of my family. Why were these guys trying to chase us?”
His wife, Charmanta, 38, said they could not believe Chadwin was gone.
“He was such a good child. Everyone liked him.
“I hear rumours where people say he was in a gang, but it is impossible,” she said.
“My son was never in a gang. He was always helping people where he could and everyone loved him for it.
“Why they took my son from me, I will never know,” she said tearfully.
Deacon’s emotional father, Angelo Sharpe, 43 – a security guard at a nearby school – said they were still trying to come to terms with his death.
“We are all devastated by this attack, it is inhumane.”
Asked about motive, Sharpe said it was a mystery.
“This area used to be quiet and we had minimal crime.
“Over time, more people moved [here] and this was followed by the gangsters who want to hide out.
“We need people to stand together and stop these senseless murders.
“I have now lost my son, but I hope if we stand together we can save some other children from becoming victims.”
Four other people inside the house, aged between 24 and 36, were wounded, one of them seriously.
Asked if any of the victims were state witnesses or complainants in pending cases, police spokesperson Colonel Priscilla Naidu said nothing had emerged to suggest this was a witness-related attack.