“WE heard three loud banging sounds, which we at first just brushed off as being fire crackers,” a neighbour (who asked to remain anonymous) of a murdered father and Glen Marais resident, said.

“But then my two little daughters, who were playing in the front yard of the house, came running to me in the back yard, screaming that someone had been shot.”

What the two girls had heard were indeed gun shots that killed yet another Glen Marais resident, who died at the hands of criminals at his Kremetart Street home on Saturday evening.

Louis van Blerk (47) was shot and killed in the garden of his home after trying to fight off four armed men during an armed robbery on December 13.

According to Captain Jethro Mtshali, spokesman for Kempton Park SAPS, the teenage daughter of the deceased had gone outside to play with the dogs when four suspects entered their home.

“She said four men pulled up in a white KIA Sportage. When she saw them, she immediately ran inside the house, screaming, where she pressed the panic button. By the time the men had gained entry into the home, they could only grab two cell phones and ran outside,” Mtshali said.

Van Blerk chased after the men and tried to fight them off in the front yard. That was when one of the men fired at him, fatally injuring him in the upper right leg.

Both police and neighbours are uncertain about the number of shots fired, but one of the neighbours said he heard about three shots, one of which was fired from another neighbour’s gun, who was in the yard to scare off the robbers.

“By the time I arrived on the scene from my house, I found other people already there, attempting CPR on him and trying to stop the bleeding. Alpha and COPS Security were already on the scene,” a neighbour said.

“We suspect a shot gun was used because he had a huge gaping whole in his leg, and he was bleeding excessively.”

Paramedics declared him dead on the scene.

Mtshali confirmed that a case of murder and house robbery is being investigated.

Police request anyone with information to contact them on 0860010111 or sms crime line 32211.