Teen and baby removed from KZN home after mother’s fatal bathroom shooting

A teenage girl and her baby brother were removed from their KwaZulu-Natal (KZN) home after two gunmen fatally shot their mother while she was undressed in the bathroom.

A 16-year-old girl from Cornubia, north of Durban, told Reaction Unit South Africa (Rusa) officers on Wednesday afternoon that after returning home from school, her mother, who was entering the bathroom at the time, handed her the house keys through a window.

Mother shot in bathroom by unknown men

When the teenager opened the door, two unknown men entered the house with her.

The two men had firearms and used the weapons to threaten the girl and her one-year-old baby brother.

According to Rusa, one of the men escorted the teen and her brother upstairs and instructed her not to speak or alert her mother that there were two armed men in the house.

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“The second suspect remained downstairs. A short while later she heard two gunshots, and the men left immediately,” Rusa said in a statement.

“The child ran downstairs and found her mother bleeding profusely from a gunshot wound to the head.”

Officers called after neighbour heard gunshots

Rusa received a call for assistance at 3.44pm from a neighbour who heard two gunshots.

Upon the officer’s arrival and after interviewing the daughter, they found the mother lying face-up in the bathroom on the ground floor.

The mother was declared dead at 4.04pm and she suffered an entry and exit wound to her eye and head.

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The children were subsequently removed from their home.

Four-year-old shot dead

Meanwhile, in the same province on the weekend, a four-year-old child, Jerimiah Xolo, was shot dead by an unknown suspect while he was with his mother in Zwelisha, Durban.

According to Rusa, the child and his mother were standing near a local tuck shop when a white car drove past.

“The mother then noticed the child falling to the ground and bleeding profusely from the head. The child died almost immediately,” Rusa said.

The traumatised mother told officers that no gunshot was heard and she believed that a silencer was used on the weapon. Witnesses also said no gunshots were heard, but they noticed the child fall to the ground.

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