Another mass shooting shocks Eastern Cape

Six people were gunned down and four others injured in Qumbu, near Mthatha, in a bloody mass shooting on Sunday evening, 6 October.

The deadly incident took place on the same day the mass memorial service was held for the 18 victims of the senseless Lusikisiki massacre about a week ago.

On 29 September, two homesteads on the same street of Ngobozana village were targeted in the shooting that killed 12 women and one man at one location, and three women and another man at the second location.

The mass shootings come as the South African Police Service (Saps) says it is intensifying its crackdown on serious and violent crime nationwide through its high-density policing strategy, Operation Shanela.  

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Qumbu mass shooting

Details are still emerging around night’s Qumbu shooting with police spokesperson Warrant Officer Majola Nkohli saying the injured victims had been rushed to hospital.

“Unknown suspects shot the victims,” Nkohli said.

 “The motive for the shooting is unclear at this stage.”

• This is a developing story.

Lusikisiki massacre: Top cop on suspects arrested

During his address at the memorial service for the Lusikisiki victims on Sunday, Police Minister Senzo Mchunu revealed that the three arrested suspects are also linked to a number of other cases in the area, including murder.

“We said that this incident, horrible incident, happened against the backdrop or the context of a number of cases that happened before, including that one that happened of shooting somebody in hospital two or three days before.

“Now, three people have been arrested in that context, but in cases like those, you arrest somebody for a specific case in which he or she is the suspect,” Mchunu said.

“There are always possibilities that he or she may be a person of interest in another case including the one that has recently happened, so those three are in that particular context.

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Three mass shooting suspects to appear in court

“When they get charged tomorrow [Monday] it doesn’t mean that it will be the end. It may not mean that, it may mean that there may be other charges that may follow as police do their work.

“Now on what delays the fourth one [arrest of another suspect], police are working on the basis of investigations. They base their arrest on evidence on probability… They know how to do the work,” Mchunu explained.

“They will follow investigations all the time until they are able to say, ‘now you are charged’.”

The three suspects are expected to appear in court on Monday.

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