'He didn't say a word'
2008-06-25 23:13
Middelburg - The police shot dead a 12-year-old boy who was involved in a robbery in Marloth Park on Tuesday. A 14-year-old boy was arrested.
The boys were suspected to have been involved in a series of house robberies in the holiday town.
Both children were from Mozambique and were in the country illegally.
Captain Leonard Hlati said the two boys were found about three hours after they had shot Alison FitzGerald, 45, in her house in Erdvark Street.
Alison said on Wednesday that she had been face to face with her attacker.
"He was armed with an AK-47 and, without saying a word, he fired two shots. The first shot flew over my left shoulder and cut my hair. The second hit the ring finger on my left hand," she said.
The two boys were hiding on an estate in the Komatipoort area. They began firing at the police who returned fire.
The 12-year-old boy, who had not yet been identified, was shot in the thigh with a 9mm pistol. He died from the gunshot wound shortly afterwards.
Sent for ballistic tests
The 14-year-old boy was to appear in Komatipoort Magistrate's Court on Thursday on charges of attempted murder and illegal possession of a firearm.
The police seized an AK-47 rifle which has been sent for ballistic tests. It was presumed that an AK-47 was used in 15 of the Marloth Park attacks.
Alison said on Wednesday she and her two daughters Niamh, six, and Nickita, four, were still in shock.
Alison and her husband, Nick, arrived at home with their two daughters shortly after 17:00.
Nick unlocked the house, deactivated the alarm and walked back to the driveway to park the car. Alison and the girls went inside and she walked up the stairs to the second storey to open the security door.
Niamh was in the bathroom on the ground floor and saw a man walking in the front door. She shouted to her mother that the man had a gun.
Alison said she ran down the stairs and he stood in front of her with the AK-47.
After he shot her, he turned and ran outside.
Nickita ran outside and hysterically called her father. Nick said: "When I came into the house, Alison had wrapped her hand in a handkerchief and already had pressed the panic button.
"Niamh saw a second person at the swimming pool, but he presumably fled when the first one ran out the door."
Spate of armed robberies
Security guards from Field Security and members of the police's unit against organised crime were on the scene within minutes and fine-combed the property.
They followed up on information and traced the boys.
Residents of Marloth Park, which borders the Kruger Park, have experienced a spate of armed robberies in the past year.
A police team was appointed to investigate the scourge of crimes in the holiday town.