After searching and believing he was safe, a mom received the news no parent wants to hear: her son had been killed.
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Cape Town - After a weekend of frantic searching and believing he was safe, Brooklyn mother Susan Jansen received the news no parent wants to hear: her son had been shot and killed.
Mortimer Henry Jansen, 29, was shot dead and three others – a 14-year-old girl, a 16-year-old boy and a 26-year-old man – were wounded in an alleged drive-by shooting in Loanda Street, Brooklyn, on Monday.
Jansen’s body lay under a blanket outside a block of flats while residents stood in shocked silence nearby.
Susan Jansen repeatedly tugged the blanket open to look at her son’s bloodied face as if to assure herself that he was gone. “I don’t know what to do with myself,” she sobbed.
“After spending the weekend looking for him, I was glad when they told me he was in police custody. At least he was still alive. But now to see him lying there lifeless, it’s just too much.”
Mortimer had spent the weekend behind bars and was released earlier on Monday afternoon. Jansen told the Cape Argus that Mortimer was a member of the 28s gang.
However, she said details of his arrest were unknown to her.
“I didn’t even know what he was at the police station for.”
Jansen said she was looking forward to seeing her son.
“I was on my way back from work and one of his friends came running to me and told me that he was shot dead,” she said.
Eyewitnesses claimed to have seen a white CitiGolf with tinted windows parked near the block of flats where Mortimer and his friends were headed.
One said: “Four men jumped out (of the car) and started firing shots. They fired about 11 shots and then they got into the car and fled.”
One of the wounded ran to her home and a few seconds later Mortimer’s friends came to his aid, but it was too late. The other wounded had, according to residents, run away.
Residents said they had no doubt that the shooting had to do with Mortimer’s release, which they believed to be in connection with a murder case.
Police, however, could not confirm this but said the shooting happened at around 3pm in Loanda Street.
Police spokesman Lieutenant- Colonel Andre Traut said the circumstances were being investigated and no arrests had been made.
zodidi.dano@inl.co.za
Cape Argus