A gun-slinging pastor from Ottery is behind bars after he allegedly opened fire on his own family and school laaities in a drunken rage.
Grassy Park SAPS commander Dawood Laing says the incident on Monday afternoon has left the family and neighbours traumatised as the 74-year-old oupa fired wildly into the air, nearly killing six people.
The incident in Norman Close saw the oupa’s grandson tackle him to the ground to prevent mense from being hurt.
“The officers responded to reports of shots going off and found the old man dik gesuip and tackled to the ground,” Laing explains.
“What happened was he sent his 19-year-old grandson to the school to fetch his twin sisters but the school said an adult must collect them.
“As he walked over the veldjie, the oupa just started opening fire at him.”
The top cop says the teen told cops his drunk oupa turned on his stepson also but luckily missed both of them.
“Both of them were not hurt but the suspect also opened fire on a couple who were walking over the veldjie and they informed us they could hear the bullets flying past their ears but luckily they were also not hurt.
“They informed us that at the time of the shooting there were two schoolboys also walking on the veldjie and the bullets missed them as well,” Laing explains.
“The grandson tackled him and got the firearm away from him and we still found one round inside the firearm.”
He says officers immediately arrested the dronk oupa.
“He was so dik gesuip he couldn’t even tell us what the name of the church was. His family explained that he continually got drunk and fought with his family,” Laing adds.
“When we took him to the station with the firearm and the ammunition that he had in his safe, we found that his firearm licence had expired in 2007 and he never applied for a renewal.
“He was charged with four counts of attempted murder as we were not able to find the two boys as they ran away out of fear, as well as charges of the illegal possession of a firearm and he will appear in court this week.”
Laing says while they are grateful nobody was injured, it could have ended in tragedy.
“This is why it is important to get your firearm licence renewed so that your competency to possess a firearm can be tested.
“He nearly killed six people in a drunken rage and everyone is traumatised.”
dailyvoice@inl.co.za