CT authorities monitoring station deck after shooting
Police and the City of Cape Town have suggested that the shooting may be linked to taxi conflict.
CAPE TOWN - Authorities will monitor the station deck following a taxi-related shooting in which six people were wounded.
A suspect was arrested by a patrolling City of Cape Town traffic officer minutes later.
It resulted in the rank and surrounding roads being closed, but taxis were still operating.
Crowds looked on as detectives combed the scene at the busy Cape Town station deck.
#CTTaxiShooting Metro police officers are on scene they are combing the area and searching for possible suspects.SF pic.twitter.com/UTdkZ2toYc
EWN Reporter (@ewnreporter) November 23, 2020
#CTtaxishooting Police combing the scene at the taxi rank - where a shooting took place. KP pic.twitter.com/La7KyqlUSX
EWN Reporter (@ewnreporter) November 23, 2020
Further down, it was business as usual for taxis that were unaffected, as they continued to load passengers.
Many drivers claimed that they did not know what had happened, while others told Eyewitness News they were too scared to give information.
However, one driver was parked near the scene of the shooting. The shaken man told Eyewitness News what he did when he heard the gunshots.
"I didn't see. When I heard the shot, I got down. I don't know where the shots came from."
Another driver feels unsafe following the violence.
#CTtaxishooting Theres been a shooting at the Cape Town station deck this afternoon. Police are currently on scene. pic.twitter.com/tAFVay3Zhd
EWN Reporter (@ewnreporter) November 23, 2020
"I don't feel safe. To think that this could happen in Cape Town because we're not protected. We're used to this in the location but not here. We thought that Town was safe."
Police and the City of Cape Town have suggested that the shooting may be linked to taxi conflict.
Meanwhile, the City of Cape Town said that ongoing land invasions and protests were taking away law enforcement resources which should be deployed at public transport facilities.
"Resources are being siphoned off by other actions, and they're high-priority because they're violent, so our staff get drawn away to manage roads, close the roads and that has the consequence of drawing resources away from these other spots like this where crime then proliferates as well, so all these things have consequences and knock-ons," said the city's JP Smith.
"Whether its internal taxi conflict that played itself out at the expense of the several people and several bystanders or whether it was an attempted hijacking that went wrong or extortion related, I think the facts will come out in the next couple of days."
