One of the injured was a lawyer who was representing the accused in a case
Five people were shot at the Booysens Magistrate’s Court on Tuesday.
Two of the victims have been confirmed dead, while three were injured in the shooting.
The shooting occurred while a group was attending a court case.
Shooting details and victims
According to the South African Police Service (Saps) spokesperson, Brigadier Brenda Muridili, the attack was carried out by three assailants who targeted the group without warning.
“There’s about three shooters that came and randomly shot at them. And as they were shooting, this resulted in two of the victims being dead on the scene and three were taken to hospital for medical treatment,” she said.
Muridili confirmed that one of the injured victims has been identified as the lawyer representing the accused in a case being heard on Tuesday.
The accused was appearing on charges of murder and attempted murder from a 2025 case that occurred in Mondeor, in the south of Johannesburg.
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Suspects flee in cloned vehicle
The suspects escaped on foot before being picked up by a white Audi that investigators identified as a cloned vehicle.
Muridili explained that cloning refers to a duplicate vehicle, stating: “The original vehicle, as they were looking on the system, is a vehicle that currently is parked as a vehicle that is broken.”
This means that the Audi that was seen fleeing the scene had number plates duplicated from the parked vehicle.
Despite the brazen nature of the attack, police are confident they have enough to start their investigation.
“We do know that there’s three suspects and we do have quite a good description of those suspects as and when the detectives are ready to issue the ID case of those suspects we will be doing so,” Muridili said.
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Security measures under scrutiny
The shooting has raised questions about court security protocols, particularly for high-risk cases.
Muridili noted that security departments typically coordinate with police when threats are identified.
“They are aware when there are cases that they know for a fact that there is a threat on those cases, they do ramp up security. They do involve the police to come and be part of this,” she explained.
However, this particular case had not been flagged as requiring enhanced security measures.
Muridili emphasised that in typical high-risk situations, collaboration between court security and police is standard practice.
“If there’s a case that they know that there might be something that might happen at the court in terms of fights or in terms of the retaliations, they is security to ensure that these incidents do not happen,” she said.
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Active crime scene
Ministry of Justice and Constitutional Development spokesperson Samuel Modipane confirmed that Deputy Minister Andries Nel was scheduled to proceed to the scene to assess the situation.
The ministry stated it was awaiting further details from law enforcement agencies and court management.
Modipane said the department has committed to providing updates as they occur.
“The ministry condemns this incident and will work with the relevant security and law enforcement authorities to ensure that all necessary measures are implemented to safeguard court users and personnel,” he added.
At the time of reporting, the crime scene remained active with investigators still processing evidence.
Family members of the victims were present at the scene, and the bodies had not yet been removed.
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