For the second time since March, a Retreat family are mourning the loss of a loved one after a 17-year-old boy was shot and killed on Wednesday morning.
Cafda Village resident Keenan Gelant was shot while walking to the shop from his home in Blagden Street at 7.30am.
His 33-year-old uncle Graham Gelant was killed in Heinz Park on 16 March.
Keenan was killed two days after 63-year-old Gideon Visagie was gunned down in his 12th Avenue home, also in Cafda, by two masked shooters Tuesday morning.
And their neighbour Shirley Brickles lost her son Grant Murphy to gang violence in December.
A heartbroken female family member told the Daily Voice: “Keenan was on the way to the shop when he stopped by a friend’s house but then this group of guys came walking up to them.
“Everybody here knows Keenan was not a gangster and he still pleaded for them to not do anything but a few of them still started shooting.
“The friend managed to run away but they got Keenan in his body and he died on the spot.
“Every Sunday, he would go play soccer on the field, when he was not there, he was just here with his friends.
“After the guys shot Keenan, the people saw them walking down the road and even the cops were there but they did nothing.
“The cops always want to come and take pictures of the witnesses or innocent people but when we show them who the gangsters are then they do nothing.”
Police spokesperson Sergeant Wesley Twigg confirmed a murder investigation is under way with no arrests yet.