A COUPLE’S night of cuddling in the cold winter night was tragically disturbed.
This after the lovebirds from Cottonlands, north of Durban, were murdered in a hail of bullets while they were asleep on Saturday night. The couple’s naked bullet-riddled bodies were discovered in their rented room by their neighbours, several hours after they heard gunshots.
A resident told Daily Sun she was still awake when she heard the gunshots. She said she was afraid to go out and waited until the shots went silent before going out with other people. Another resident said it’s strange that the couple was killed. He said they’d just moved to the area.
“They’ve been living there for about three weeks. We suspect they were followed from wherever they came from,” he said.
Reaction Unit South Africa (Rusa) spokesman Prem Balram said residents contacted Rusa when the shots went silent. He said reaction officers and Rusa paramedics were sent to the scene and on arrival found a large crowd in the yard.
“Paramedics entered the room and located the couple lying naked in their bed. The 32-year-man was shot once in the head and four times in the body. His 30-year-old girlfriend was shot in the head, abdomen and four times on her left arm.
“Their entrance door was forced open,” he said.
He said other tenants informed reaction officers that they heard multiple shots being fired in the building. “They were afraid to immediately leave their rooms and waited several hours before conducting a wellness check on everyone on the property,” he said.
Police spokeswoman Lieutenant-Colonel Nqobile Gwala confirmed the incident and said: “It is alleged that on 23 July, at 2.30am, a couple aged 31 and 32 were shot and killed by unknown suspects while they were asleep in their rented house at Cottonlands in Verulam.”
Gwala said the motive for the killing was unknown at this stage, and the suspects were unknown.
