ALBERTON – An eye witness to the shooting at a recent music festival in Alberton who wants to remain anonymous recalls the unfortunate event, saying that they were standing in a queue to buy cards for drinks when it occurred. She heard popping sounds.
“When I turned around to see what was going on, I realised the noises I had heard was actually shots being fired,” she explains.
The events that took place happened so fast that she is not sure how many shots were fired, but that everyone around her started yelling to get down and the crowd started to scatter.
“The intended victim was pushing at the gunman so he wouldn’t be shot, but the gunman kept firing, those were all the shots that had missed him and had then sadly hit a few people in the crowd,” she added.
She then saw how the shooter shot the person he had an argument with, and the victim of the shots lying on the ground. The reservist ran up to the person holding the gun, identified himself as a police reservist and asked the suspect to put down his gun.
“The gunman refused and kept his gun pointed at the reservist. So the reservist did what needed to be done before any more innocent people were hurt,” she recalls.
She expressed that she was thankful for the presence of the reservist and that he reacted the way he did.
“No unarmed man would have risked his own life to run up to someone who had just openly shot someone else. The reservist did what needed to be done to protect himself and everyone there. To serve and protect and that’s just what he did.”
She added that there was security present at the festival but that festivalgoers were not searched.
“People always complain that there is nothing to do in the South. This event was organised by regular people, who had a dream to host an event once a year for people in and around the South. It is unfortunate that this happened at their event,” she concluded.
