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A four year old Helenvale boy has become the latest victim of rampant gang violence in Port Elizabeth's Northern Areas after being shot dead outside his home in Ibek Street on Sunday afternoon.
Police Warrant officer Alwin Labans has named the child as Luciano Pieterse and says he died in Livingstone Hospital after being shot in the head by a group of gangsters.
Labans told AlgoaFM News that 11 year old Jaden Fredericks and 23 year-old Byron Carroles had been wounded in the same incident in which the gang members appeared to shoot at random.
Fredericks was grazed by a bullet on the right side of his head and was also hit in the left foot. Carroles was hit in the mouth.
Both are in a stable condition in hospital.
Labans praised the local community for chasing after the gangsters and trying to apprehend them, but warned that they were placing their lives in danger.
He said a special task team had worked through the night in the hopes of making a speedy arrest.
Labans said a strong police presence would be maintained in the Northern Areas where 11 people have been killed in gang violence in the past two weeks.
