PORT ELIZABETH, (ANA) – A month before 12-year-old Aaliyah “Angel” Tee was shot and killed in cold blood, her mother Candice had witnessed a shooting across from her house in which notoriousPort Elizabeth gangster Donovan “Staal” Berry, was killed.
That was the testimony of CandiceTee on Wednesday, who was testifying in the Port Elizabeth High Court for the second day in the trial of Nealon Redhouse, 18, and Deon Harmse, 24, who are charged with Angel’s murder.
Berry, who was affiliated to the same Spotbouers gang as the two accused, died in a hail of bullets on 3 May 2016.
Candice Tee, who wears a bulletproof vest to court and is in a witness protection programme with her husband, Edmund, told the court that she had left a shop across the road from her house inBarberry Street in Bethelsdorp, on the day that Berry was killed.
“I did not know the man who was shot but I heard afterwards that it was Staal.”
Tee said that at the time of the shooting Angel was at school (at the StrelitziaPrimary School) while her husband Edmund was in their yard of their house.
She said that she had only seen three of the alleged gunmen who had shot “Staal” .
Police said at the time that he had been shot 31 times in the face and body.
Tee told the court that out of fear, she and her husband did not make any statements to the police. “At first I did not make a statement but on the day I made a statement I felt safe,” Tee told the court.
The court had to adjourn several times on Wednesday when both Tee and the interpreter broke down when Tee recounted the events on the night that her teenage daughter was shot dead inside the bathroom of their home, while her husband was wounded in the attack.
Meanwhile, in a surprise move, the two accused fired their Legal Aid attorneys on Wednesday saying they were going to secure the services of private counsel.
Judge Mandela Makaula, postponed to the matter to Friday, warning the accused to return to court with a definite answer.
Redhouse and Harmse have pleaded not guilty to charges of murder, attempted murder, housebreaking with intent to commit murder and the possession of an unlicensed firearm and ammunition.
–African News Agency (ANA)
