/ 24 September 2010

Task force at Kempton Park hostage drama

Members of a special task force were at a leafy Kempton Park suburb on Friday, where a man had been holding his son hostage for several hours after he had shot him earlier.

The man also earlier allegedly shot his wife at their plush red face-brick home in Birchleigh.

“The wife escaped out of the house and was taken to hospital in a serious condition,” Netcare 911 spokesperson Chris Botha said.

She sustained a gunshot wound in the neck.

Journalists, who had been camping outside the house, were moved further away from the scene when the task force arrived.

Meanwhile, neighbours described the man as a “very nice person”.

“I know him, he is a nice person,” said a neighbour who did not wish to be named.

Another said what was happening “was very sad, and she was not used to situations like this”.

“We are not used to this type of thing happening in this area,” she said. “We don’t know what is going on.”

Police were seen walking around the garden trying to get the man, whose age is unknown, to release his son.

Botha said the son was shot a few times and it was not known how old he was and if he was still alive. — Sapa