AS if the noise and danger posed by New Year’s eve fireworks were not bad enough, an Empangeni family woke on the first day of 2016 to find gunshots had been fired amid the din of the crackers.
Businessman, Brett Poupard discovered the hollow point bullet in his swimming pool – right where his family had been sitting as the chaotic night of uncontrolled madness unfolded.
‘This is the kind of thing that happens under the cover of fireworks, as people cannot tell the difference.
‘Alcohol plus firearms equal stupid and people discharge firearms into the air and don’t realise or perhaps care that what goes up must come down,’ said Poupard. And this is not the first report of such an incident.
‘I shall be sending it for ballistics and charging the culprit with attempted murder as it could have struck my family.
‘I blame the municipality for not enforcing the fireworks bans in this city.
‘It is sad that I and my Neighbourhood Watch and the SPCA had to patrol the streets all night, rescuing fleeing, frightened animals and stopping people from letting off fireworks in the street.
‘During this time, we did not encounter a single policeman or traffic officer, hence the chaos.’
