Free State farm shooting: 11-year-old boy killed, 6 others injured

Police have launched a manhunt for suspects after a shooting incident at a farm that claimed the life of an 11-year-old boy and saw six adults hospitalised in Ficksburg, Free State.

Police say two unknown suspects fled the scene in an unknown vehicle after the incident at 9.50pm on Sunday.

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‘Fired without warning’

“Two armed men arrived at the farm… and started shooting at farm dwellers at two houses on the farmstead without uttering a word to the occupants inside the houses,” spokesperson Warrant Officer Mmako Mophiring said.

“The suspects fled the scene on foot and got into an unknown car that was parked on the side of R26 road near the farmstead.

“It was discovered later on the arrival of police and emergency personnel that an 11-year-old minor was shot and died instantly on the scene.”

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Mophiring said six other people, men and women, were injured and rushed to the local hospital for medical treatment.

“The motive behind the shooting is not yet known. However, police investigations continue. Cases of murder and six counts of attempted murder are being investigated.

He said anyone with information that may lead to arrests and conviction of the suspects can contact Ficksburg Detective Captain Lebakeng on 079 897 7144, Crime Stop 08600 10111, or use the MySAPS App.

Call to categorise farm attacks as a priority crime

Last year, civil rights group AfriForum called for farm murders and attacks to be considered organised crime and categorised as priority crime following the killing of a 12-year-old boy in October.

“Five armed attackers entered the house while the boy and his mom were home. The mom managed to get the boy into the car to get him to a hospital after the attack. Tragically, he died,” Action Society founder Ian Cameron said at the time.

AfriForum’s spokesperson for community safety Jacques Broodryk said the trivial brutality of attacks like that one showed they were not ordinary incidents of crime.

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Additional reporting by Marizka Coetzer.