Two Port Elizabeth men have been jailed for an effective 25 years for the murder of two-year-old Hakeem Baartman, who died after being caught in the crossfire of a shooting in Helenvale in 2017.
Marshall Thomas and Maxwell Muller were sentenced in the High Court on Monday.
A 17-year-old youth, who was the target of the shooting, was wounded in the neck when police said Thomas approached him outside a house in Hartebees Street and started shooting.
The teenage victim ran into the street while Thomas continued firing and little Hakeem who was playing in the street was fatally wounded in the head by a stray bullet.
Thomas was arrested in May 2018, while Muller, who was later identified as an accomplice, was arrested on 4 February 2019 while in custody for another murder and attempted murder case.
Eastern Cape police commissioner, Lieutenant-General Liziwe Ntshinga, welcomed the sentencing.
She said it was the "first Provincial Organised Crime Investigation Unit gang conviction and sentence achieved in Nelson Mandela Bay Metro".
