One moment a three-year-old toddler was sitting on his father’s lap in Martin Street, Helenvale, and the next, the little boy was gasping for air and fighting for his life after being struck by a bullet in his stomach during alleged gang warfare in the area.
The child’s father, – amid the frantic screams of neighbours running around in the street – picked up his wounded son from where they had been sitting in the front yard of the house and ran inside shouting for help.
The little boy’s grandmother said she had been just down the road when the commotion erupted at about 2.15pm on Tuesday.
She said rival gangsters had been shooting at one another when a stray bullet hit little the toddler in the stomach.
“We were all hysterical,” the grandmother said. There was a lot of confusion at first and people were screaming that my child had been shot.
“I thought it was [the boy's father], but then I saw him running into the house carrying his son.
“It all happened so fast.”
The boy had bled only slightly from the bullet lodged in his stomach.
“We were worried that he was bleeding internally and I was praying to God to save my grandchild,” the grandmother said.
“He was struggling to breathe and I’m so thankful that, at that time, we heard someone stopping in front of the house” who offered to rush them to hospital.
“My heart’s desire is for me to go [die] first, rather than my children or my grandchildren,” the grandmother said.
“I thought I was going insane when the shooting happened, when people were screaming that [the boy's father] had been shot.”
The toddler, whose condition was described as serious, was due to undergo surgery late on Tuesday night.
“God heard my cries and I know he’s going to make it. I trust in God,” the anxious granny said.
The toddler's parents were at the hospital and could not be reached for comment.
Late on Tuesday night, a 23year-old suspected gangster was arrested in Voisen Street in connection with the shooting.
Eastern Cape provincial police commissioner LieutenantGeneral Liziwe Ntshinga condemned the shooting.
“We condemn such a callous attack in the strongest possible way,” he said.
The shooting comes just days after 12-year-old Alvineesha Brookes was tragically caught in the crossfire of another gang-related shooting in Bethelsdorp.
She was standing among a crowd of people at a shop on Saturday night when the shooting broke out.
Fury over the grade 7 pupil’s death led to a vigilante attack by an outraged mob, who fatally assaulted a young man and critically wounded a youth at a suspected gang member’s home.
Police said Ntshinga had summoned a 72-hour activation plan comprising specialised units to hunt down the shooters of the three-year-old.
PLEASE NOTE: This article has been edited to remove the victim's identity following concerns from Media Monitoring Africa that identifying him might subject him to potential harm.