Brave teen rescues twin brother after mom’s gun rampage
TWO days after his mother attempted to kill him and his twin brother, a teenager was back at school on Monday.
The boys were wounded in the shooting last weekend when their mother killed their elder brother before committing suicide.
Despite a hand wound, the boy carried his twin brother, critically wounded in the head, to safety at a neighbour’s house.
His twin has also survived the family shooting, but is in an induced coma in Tygerberg Hospital. His brother showed immense emotional maturity, according to Henry Alexander, the principal of Bernadino Heights Secondary School in Kraaifontein, Western Cape. The twins are in Grade 10 at the school.
“He’s a very courageous boy,” said Alexander.
The boys’ 43-year-old widowed mother had left her job at Checkers a year ago. She had invested much of her money in a suspected ponzi scheme. Her husband, a teacher, died a year earlier of brain cancer.
Psychologist Ian Meyer said: “People like this are overwhelmed by the sense of hopelessness.”
The boy, with a bandaged hand, was back in class on Monday, having attended the funerals of his mother and elder brother the day before.
Alexander said their mother’s devotion to her children had appeared to grow stronger after her husband died.
“We were under the impression that the family was doing quite well and they were all well cared for. There was never any reason for concern.”
Family friends have taken the boy in. After school each day this week, the boy has visited his twin.
Meyer said the murders could affect the boys’ long-term trust and their ability to establish other relationships.
A support base is essential, according to Debbie Adlington, the sole survivor of a family murder/suicide by her husband in which her three children died.
People like this are overwhelmed by the sense of hopelessness
She heard about the Kraaifontein tragedy on Monday, the 15th anniversary of her own ordeal.
Her husband, Tony, killed Kevin, 12, Katelyn, 10, and Craig, 9, with an axe before dousing their bodies with petrol, setting their Cape Town home on fire and shooting himself.
“When I heard about it I just went cold,” said Adlington, who spent three weeks in a coma with axe injuries to her head.
She was still living one day at a time, she said, and she encouraged the Kraaifontein twins to focus on their good memories and remain positive.
Meyer said it was unusual for a woman to act as the Kraaifontein mother had done.