Family blames gangs for daughter’s shooting
“MOWED down in her prime because of a gang problem that will never go away.”
This is how a Cape Flats father, Peter Anthony, 42, yesterday described the murder of his 16-year-old daughter Tracy-Lee, who was shot in the face last week.
When the Cape Times walked into the Lotus River flat of the Anthony family, they had gathered in the lounge, where a large photograph of Tracy-Lee was displayed on the TV set.
Peter was reading a newspaper at 9.45pm on Wednesday last week, waiting for TracyLee to return home after she had gone out to visit a friend in nearby Weltevreden Court.
“I heard a gunshot and then the screams. ‘Tracy has been shot. Tracy has been shot’, I heard them shouting,” he said.
“When I got there, I could see that my daughter was dead … she was shot in her face. She had a big hole on the side of her nose and I could see the exit wound,” he said.
Anthony said when he sat down next to Tracy-Lee and lifted her head, he saw a bullet casing underneath her.
“The guy who shot her told me ‘I didn’t shoot her... There were no bullets in the gun’.”
Tracy-Lee’s mother Vennessa, 42, described her daughter as a studious young lady.
“She would come in everyday and do her school work before anything else. I was proud of her grades. She was very focused and had dreams of travelling the world.
“She had so many ideas of what she wanted to be. It was her 16th birthday on January 25. There’s a graffiti slogan that we can see opposite our doorway. She always repeated it on her way out. It says ‘The Future Belongs To All’.”
Police said the 16-year-old boy who had been arrested for Tracy-Lee’s murder was to have appeared in court on Friday, but told investigators he was ready to admit he had shot her. He was set to appear at the Wynberg Magistrate’s Court today.
Residents said Tracy-Lee was killed because she was a witness to a recent murder that involved her killer.
“I’ve lived here for more than 30 years and the gangs are still killing innocents. When will be able to take back our streets?” asked Peter.
Police spokesman Frederick van Wyk confirmed that a murder case had been opened.
I heard a gunshot and then screams