Three men are dead after a gunman opened fire in a Lotus River take-aways during a suspected gang hit on Wednesday afternoon.
The owner of Bismillah take-aways, Awais Khan, 30, says he was left reeling in shock after seeing the lifeless body of his employee Usiman M’Bwana, 28, and that of two men, who tried to flee the gunman, at the back of the shop.
Grassy Park Station Commander Colonel Dawood Laing says cops were called to the horrific triple murder scene shortly after 3pm where they discovered that the two dead strangers were high-profile gangsters from Hillview.
“The two men, aged 33 and 28, are members of the Flakkas gang and came all the way from Hillview to buy something at the pharmacy in the same shopping complex as the take-aways in Klip Road,” explains Laing.
“They were driving in a VW Golf GTi and were the target of the shooting. The worker inside was an unfortunate casualty.”
Laing says the two skollies were followed by two hitmen on a motorbike from Hillview to Lotus River.
“The hitmen watched them go inside the pharmacy and when they left, they went into Bismillah and ordered something.
“The worker took the order and the two skollies were waiting for their food when the motorbike stopped in front of the shop and one of them got off and ran inside.
“The gunman fired one shot as he entered and it appears the worker, who was frying slap chips, ran to the back of the shop, but he was followed by the two skollies and they were cornered by the gunman who shot all three in the head.
“They were all declared dead at the scene,” says Laing.
Horrific images of the scene show the three men piled on top of each other.
Khan says he is devastated.
“He has been working for me for two years as a general worker and he is such a nice guy,” he says.
“He works very hard and was just doing his job when this shooting happened.
“He is not married and doesn’t have children. He came here from Malawi and works hard to send money back home to his mother.”
Laing says when cops attended the scene, they found tjappies on the bodies of the two skollies and further investigations revealed one of them had recently been released from jail.
“The 33-year-old has a long criminal history and spent time in prison for drug dealing, firearms and ammunition,” says the top cop.
“At the time of his murder, he had only been out of prison for a couple of months.
“At this stage the investigation is continuing and no arrests have been made.”