‘They died right next to me’

Veteran South African actor and performer Mortimer Williams – who was among those injured in the mass shooting in Melville, Johannesburg, early yesterday morning – has recounted the harrowing experience which saw eight people gunned down, with two losing their lives.

At about 1am, patrons seeing in the new year at the popular Poppy’s restaurant came under fire, allegedly from a gunman or gunmen in a black BMW SUV.

Two women were declared dead at the scene.

“They died right next to me,” Williams told The Citizen yesterday.

Williams – who has starred in a number of local shows including Erfsondes, Skeem Saam, Isidingo and 7de Laan – had been performing a New Year’s Eve show.

“We had done the count down and everyone’s spirits were high,” Williams said, “I had just spotted a couple of people who I hadn’t said ‘Happy New Year’ to yet, and I was walking over to them when gunshots rang out”.

The next thing Williams knew, he was lying on the floor.

“I knew I had been shot,” he said, “It was chaos. There was glass everywhere. There were people everywhere. Everyone was just trying to make sense of what had happened”.

Paramedics arrived a short while later and stabilised Williams at the scene before rushing him off to a local hospital where he is currently recovering.

Williams suffered a gunshot wound to his left kidney and a bullet graze to his hip. His doctors are still assessing his injuries and it is not yet clear if he will require surgery.

Asked about his state of mind, Williams said: “It hasn’t actually all sunk in yet but thinking about how lucky I was, makes me quite emotional. I’m just trying to focus on my recovery now, though”.

The motive for the shooting has not yet been confirmed but Williams said moments before it took place, two groups of youths were seen fighting outside the restaurant.

A police source with knowledge of the investigation said it was believed that this altercation had escalated, culminating in the shooting.

In the meantime, Poppy’s has been closed until further notice. This is according to a statement posted to the restaurant’s Facebook page yesterday, in which management also said it was “deeply saddened by this heart-rending incident”.

The spokesperson for the police in Gauteng, Brigadier Mathapelo Peters, said two cases of murder and six cases of attempted murder were being investigated. No arrests have been made yet.

Some two hours after the shooting in Melville, 11 people were also injured when gunfire erupted at the City of Joburg’s New Year’s Eve celebrations at Mary Fitzgerald Square.

In a statement released yesterday afternoon, the Gauteng provincial government said: “Preliminary investigations on the Mary Fitzgerald Square incident reveal the shooter fired several shots from the upper level of the M2 (southbound) double decker bridge and targeted the VIP area.”

Peters said police did not believe the two incidents were linked.

No arrests have been made in connection with the Mary Fitzgerald Square incident either.

– news@citizen.co.za

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