Supplied
The Port Elizabeth High Court has handed down three life sentences to a 24-year-old gang member from the city's Northern Areas on Wednesday.
Police spokesperson, Colonel Priscilla Naidu, said Neaven Demingo was sentenced on three murder charges which occurred in two separate incidents in 2019.
She said in the first incident in April, four friends were standing next to a municipal electricity sub-station building on an open field in Hibiscus Street, in Extension 31, when Demingo and one other man approached them.
It is believed that as they neared the group, both men produced firearms and started shooting at them.
Naidu said 20-year-old Austin Tembula sustained a fatal gunshot wound to his head, while 27-year-old Fernando Asia died after he sustained gunshot wounds to his head and face.
In the second incident in May, Demingo was arrested at a drug post in Extension 31, two days after 24-year-old Jacques Roberts sustained multiple gunshot wounds in Velocia Street.
She said police were patrolling the area in Extension 33 when they saw a group of about 50 people standing in the street where Roberts was shot.
They were informed that he was rushed to hospital where he died soon after.
Naidu said Demingo was also sentenced on two counts of attempted murder, and two charges for the unlawful possession of firearms, and ammunition of which he received 15 years, 5 years and 3 years imprisonment, respectively.
The sentences will run concurrently with the life sentences.
