The shootings were allegedly gang-related, with young teenage suspects arrested in the Westbury incident.
The Anti-Gang Unit has made breakthrough arrests in the two deadly gang-related mass shootings that devastated Reiger Park and Westbury in the past weeks.
The unit arrested two more suspects linked to the Westbury shooting that claimed two teenagers’ lives on 22 October.
Five other people were injured as bullets rained on Croesus Street in the gang-ridden Johannesburg township.
Meanwhile, a third suspect implicated in the Reiger Park drive-by shooting that left six people dead and three injured on Saturday night is also in police custody.
Speaking to the media in Johannesburg on Tuesday, acting provincial police commissioner in Gauteng Major General Fred Kekana said the arrests were a major breakthrough.
“I would like to report that the Anti-Gang [Unit], the investigators, with our crime intelligence and the visible policing part, this afternoon – just an hour ago – managed to capture three suspects; two of them are 19 years, and one is 17 years,” Kekana said.
He said the three outstanding suspects – initially thought to be two – bring the total arrested to five.
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“They will appear in court on Thursday in Sophiatown.”
With regard to the Reiger Park shooting, the general said he cannot divulge the exact figure of how many people were involved until someone makes a confession with full details.
Officers closing in on remaining suspects
However, a 23-year-old was arrested on Monday, in addition to the two who were arrested prior.
“… And we know who the other suspects are, but they are on the run,” Kekana said.
“But the team has been restless; we are not sleeping until we capture all of them so that they can face justice.”
Kekana said the Westbury shooting was a result of fighting between two rival gangs known to the police.
Those who were injured belong to one gang, while the ones who shot belonged to another.
“That’s purely gangsterism,” Kekana said.
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He said police took two statements from eyewitnesses who knew the suspects, their homes and their families very well, which helped them make the arrests.
According to Kekana, the Reiger Park shooting was also gang-related, and one of those who were killed was a member of a well-known gang in the Ekurhuleni township.
Call for stronger family and community role
The general bemoaned how young the suspects in Westbury are and the teens who died in the shooting.
He said it is an unfortunate situation, a social problem that needs an integrated approach.
“But starting with the family values, family rules, and parents taking their responsibility with the whereabouts of their children, and the welfare of their children, the general conduct of their children, and to ensure they monitor them and they go to school for their betterment for the future.
“And as police or law enforcement, we’ll try our best to patrol, et cetera, but it starts from the household, it starts from the same street, it starts from the same community,” Kekana said.
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