A teen has been killed in Cape Town.

• Gershwin Arendse died after being hit by a stray bullet while asleep in his bed in the early hours of Tuesday.
• His father had initially thought his son was having a seizure.
• No arrests have yet been made.

The father of a mentally disabled teenager, who suffered a bullet wound to the head, initially thought his son was having a seizure, the Daily Voice reports.

Gershwin Arendse, 19, died after being hit while asleep in his bed in the family’s Wendy house in Manenberg on Tuesday.

His father, Brian Minnaar, told the publication his son had started making jerking movements. He said he had taken the teen by the waist and supported his head with his arm, not realising that he had been shot.

He had opened the door to allow light to enter when he saw blood on his arm.

Arendse had vomited blood before dying in his home, Minnaar said.

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Neighbour Joan Williams told the newspaper that Arendse was kind and had a good sense of humour.

She recalled how he would knock at her door, like he was the police, and then laugh when her husband would scold him.

She told the publication that, while Arendse was 19, he “had the mind of a 12-year-old”.

Gangs

Locals told Die Son the Hard Livings and Americans gangs had been shooting at each other in a battle over drug turf.

Minnaar told the publication it had “rained bullets” and that any one of them could have been hit.

Western Cape police spokesperson Colonel Andre Traut confirmed to News24 that a man had been shot and killed in his home in Thames Walk at around 02:00 on Tuesday morning.

No arrests have been made.

Manenberg Safety Forum chairperson Roegshanda Pascoe told IOL the current violence was “seasonal fighting”.

She said that, as the festive season approaches, an increase in “recruitment” sees young, new members having to show their loyalty.

She slammed the government as incompetent, blaming its inability to “work with its people” for families losing loved ones.

She also blamed the increase in gang violence on the release of sentenced inmates on parole to combat the spread of Covid-19 in prisons, claiming that many of them are linked to gangs.

– Compiled by Tammy Petersen