Teenager guilty of murder

A TEENAGE gangster said to have avenged his friend’s murder by shooting dead a rival gangster who killed his friend, and then opened fire on police who intervened, was found guilty yesterday.

The juvenile was 14 years old at the time of the incident last year, and may not be named due to his age.

The proceedings, in the Parow Regional Court before magistrate Constance Nziweni, were in-camera. The youth was found guilty of murder, the illegal possession of a firearm and ammunition, and six counts of attempted murder, relating to the six shots that he fired wildly at the police.

The incident took place in November when the accused went with an armed friend in search of the rival gangster who had killed his friend who was killed.

When they found the rival gangster, the accused took his friend’s gun and shot the rival dead.

Police were on the scene soon after the incident, and when the accused saw them, he opened fire on them as well, firing at least seven shots which missed.

The accused was wounded when the police returned fire, but fled on foot with the police in hot pursuit.

The accused dropped the gun as he ran, then fell, and was overpowered and arrested.

The juvenile’s defence was that at the age of 14, he lacked criminal capacity – the ability to distinguish between right and wrong – and was thus not responsible for his actions.

But the court ruled that the mere fact that he had gone with his armed friend in search of the rival gangster indicated that his actions were goal-driven, and that he had planned to avenge his friend’s death.

His actions showed that he was able to distinguish between right and wrong, and the fact that he had fled from the police indicated that he knew that he had done wrong and was afraid of being arrested, said Nziweni.

The accused claimed in court to have fired only one shot at the police, but the testimony of one of the police officials involved was that several shots were fired at them.

The magistrate said the accused was calm during his testimony, and coped with the challenging court atmosphere. “He displayed adulthood in his testimony,” Nziweni said.

A psychiatric assessment of the accused said that he was not lacking in criminal capacity at the time of the murder, the magistrate said.

She said the accused did not act in the spur of the moment, and that when he went in search of the rival gangster, he knew full well what was going to happen.

Sentencing proceedings begin on March 13.