Caxton News Service
Thursday, August 27, 2015
A 45-year old woman was killed by a stray bullet as Somali shop owners and their landlord exchanged gunfire over a rent dispute in Mabopane, near Pretoria.Police spokesperson Constable Petunia Chabangu said four Somali men renting a tuckshop at Skirlik section, Mabopane, were involved in an argument with their landlord on Sunday night,Rekord North reported.
“The landlord left and when he returned to evict the Somalis, he had several men accompanying him,” said Chabangu.
Chabangu said a shootout ensued, and the woman was caught in the crossfire. She was hit by a bullet in the back. She added a Somali suspect was arrested and police were still looking for other suspects.
The community held a vigil outside the tuckshop, waiting for the other Somali nationals to return to collect their belongings.
The shooter was expected to appear in the Soshanguve Magistrates’ Court on Wednesday.
In a separate incident, an eight-year-old girl was shot dead allegedly by an angry neighbour in Mamelodi in the northeast of Pretoria, in January.
It is believed Nthabiseng Ramoroka, 8, was killed in Phomolong Extension by a neighbour, who was apparently fighting with his wife at the time of the incident.
The two had been arguing in the early hours of the morning when the wife managed to escape and ran to the neighbours’ house to seek help.
Jostina Ramoroka, 33, the child’s mother, said: “I was preparing to go to work around 4am when my neighbour knocked at my shack seeking help.”
The man then followed the woman into the house.
“They started arguing again, and my child was woken up by the noise. She sat on the bed and started playing with my cellphone while the two were in the other room,” said Ramoroka.
“Minutes later two shots were fired, and my husband wrestled the suspect who escaped and ran away. When we came back, we found my little daughter Nthabiseng lying dead in a pool of blood with a gunshot to the head,” Ramoroka added.