Westbury mass shooting survivor recounts how he escaped deadly attack

“I LAY flat on the floor, and my friend was shot while he was trying to protect me.”

That is how an 18-year-old victim of Tuesday's Westbury mass shooting described his narrow escape when two of his friends were shot dead, while others, including himself, were rushed to hospital. 

With a bullet still lodged in his right ear, the young man, whose name is being withheld, now struggles to hear.  He was discharged from hospital. 

Speaking about the events leading up to the shooting, the teenager said  he and his friends were having light-hearted conversations when all of a sudden, four young men, also known to them, opened fire without any provocation.

His close friends, identified as Tigan du Plessis, 18, and Diegan Ryters,17, were killed.

"Four guys came in and started shooting at us, and one of my friends died trying to protect me. We were just making jokes and speaking when they came into the yard, and they started shooting at us. I lay flat on the floor, and my friend was shot while he was trying to protect me," he said.

The teenager, who revealed that this is not the first time they have been attacked in this manner, attributed the incident to hatred and jealousy.

"We are not involved in gangs. We are just spoiled brats whose parents buy us nice clothes. This is just jealousy and nothing else," he said.

National Police Commissioner General Fannie Masemola, who addressed the media following a high-level briefing in Westbury with Gauteng police management, indicated that crime intelligence operatives, detectives, and uniformed officers were actively searching for the suspects.

"We are on their trail. They are known to the community and to the police. It’s just a matter of time before we track down these teenagers,” he said. 

A grandmother of one of the hospitalised teenagers, whose front porch was riddled with bullet holes, spoke about how she had found multiple bodies at her home.

She said the incident happened after she had gone to fetch her granddaughter from school and she heard gunshots on her return.

"A woman called me and told me I must hurry home because they are shooting at my house. When I got home, I found all the boys lying on top of each other, in a pool of blood. I had to run out to stop cars, to assist us to take them to the hospital," she said.  

Cape Times