A 23-year-old man died in a hail of bullets in a quiet Ladysmith suburb. His family have called for swift action.
|||While residents of a quiet Ladysmith suburb are still reeling from Thursday’s shooting in which a young man was slain at his home, his family is calling for swift action.
Online local newspaper reports said at around 1.45am Nishaal Beharie, 23, was shot in Celosia Crescent, Ladysmith.
Beharie, read one of the reports, was asleep when he was awakened by a sound coming from the front of his house – he went to investigate, and was suddenly hit by a hail of bullets.
His attackers, believed to be as many as eight men, then demanded the keys to a safe and money.
Beharie, said a paramedic, on the scene sustained 11 gunshot wounds to his stomach, leg and arm, and was hospitalised.
“We managed to stabilise him on the scene, after we found him in the house’s dining room. A small crowd had gathered, including relatives and neighbours, while we monitored and treated him,” said the paramedic, who could not be named because he was not authorised to speak to the media.
Captain Thulani Zwane, provincial police spokesman, said that Ladysmith police were still investigating and no arrest had yet been made.
“Beharie passed away in hospital (on Thursday) and a case of attempted murder will be changed to murder.”
His cousin Asheel Beharie, posted a picture of Nishaal on Facebook: “He came out of theatre in a stable condition, but in a lot of pain… We were praying for him,” he said.
Friends and relatives offered condolences via Facebook.
Zaid Hassen Motala wrote on his Facebook status: “How much more must we take? We aren’t even safe at home! Let us band together and make sure no one suffers as Nish did, and no family suffers the pain that his family has to. Let us make the stand so this tragic loss is not in vain. Rest in peace, my friend.”
His aunt Sharmane Janki, said that Nishaal’s bubbly personality and outgoing nature was what the family would miss the most.
“Our family is very close and we are simply not coping at all – we are very angry, in fact. This is a heinous crime – he was just a child with his whole life ahead of him,” she said.
She urged police to find the perpetrators.
His father Amar Beharie, was too distraught to speak to the Daily News. - Daily News
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