A GANG linked to the murder of East London business owner Elred Schultz managed to evade arrest on the afternoon they gunned down the 74-year-old store owner.
This emerged yesterday after news that the four suspects arrested near Mdantsane on Tuesday night were positively linked to Schultz’s murder earlier that afternoon.
Police sources who spoke to the Saturday Dispatch on condition of anonymity, as they are not authorised to speak to the media, said a cartridge found at the murder scene was found to have come from a shotgun seized from the suspects.
Schultz was killed just after 4pm on Tuesday when four gunmen stormed his Meises Halt store and shot him dead.
The police sources said they had been trailing the suspects and were ready to pounce on them for an unrelated farm robbery last month but the gang managed to evade arrest.
“We were on their heels for sometime for the (farm) robbery. Even the day before they committed the Gonubie murder, we were in Chicken Farm and Mdantsane looking for them. Then again on Tuesday we got reliable information that they were camped in a house in Chicken Farm but when we got there, they were nowhere to be found,” said the officer.
He said a police informant then called around 10pm on Tuesday night to tell them the gang were at the house. “We found the group in a house where they were smoking drugs. Two of them tried to flee by jumping out of a window.”
The officer said one of the men – believed to be the mastermind of the gang – managed to evade arrest.
“We are hot on his heels. We know he is around Mdantsane and we are hoping to arrest him before this weekend ends.”
Another officer said that after they had pounced on the gang, they were led to another house in Chicken Farm, where the guns were discovered.
“At the second house, we found guns everywhere. They were not even hidden. It was like a movie.
“This is where we arrested another man, and the woman who owns the house.
“There is no way she could say she did not know about the guns in her house, because they were everywhere and they were not even hidden.”
Police confiscated five unlicensed rifles, a shotgun and nearly 500 rounds of live ammunition. The four suspects, including the 29-year-old woman, were scheduled to appear in the Mdantsane Magistrate’s Court yesterday.
However, the matter was transferred to the East London Magistrate’s Court due to the positive link to Schultz’s killing and they are now due to appear there on Monday.
Senior prosecutor Harriet Ackermann said yesterday: “We have decided not to place the matter on our roll today. It will be placed in East London because the other charges of murder and robbery are pending there.”
Contacted for comment yesterday, Schultz’s wife Gaye, said the family would reserve comments on the investigation until later.
Gaye described her husband as “a simple, old-fashioned, gentleman. He loved his little business and even though he only had 70% vision, he felt this was something he could do and that is why we are still here after 22 years.”
His daughter, Tracey Ann Warner, said: “We are simple trader folk from Transkei.”
Gaye said she and her husband were Jehovah’s Witnesses, and even after her youngest brother was stabbed to death in Mthatha six years ago, “We bear no grudge.
“He (Elred) had two wonderful children, Brad and Tracey, because of the way they were brought up. He lived to do what was right for his extended family. My poor grandson, who has not had a father for 30 years, says ‘This is my grandfather and my father’.”
Gaye wept as she said Schultz’s dog Mazy “looks for him all over”.
The family had received overwhelming support from customers and the community.
“People are coming from overseas for the funeral,” she said.
Despite being born with a genetic eye condition, Schultz stepped in as a youngster to help his mother run the family trading station at Qamata after his father died.
His service is at 11am at Kingdom Hall, 5 Garden Street, Southernwood.
The Meisies Halt business is due to reopen tomorrow.
Trader’s killers were on the run
This emerged yesterday after news that the four suspects arrested near Mdantsane on Tuesday night were positively linked to Schultz’s murder earlier that afternoon.
Police sources who spoke to the Saturday Dispatch on condition of anonymity, as they are not authorised to speak to the media, said a cartridge found at the murder scene was found to have come from a shotgun seized from the suspects.
Schultz was killed just after 4pm on Tuesday when four gunmen stormed his Meises Halt store and shot him dead.
The police sources said they had been trailing the suspects and were ready to pounce on them for an unrelated farm robbery last month but the gang managed to evade arrest.
“We were on their heels for sometime for the (farm) robbery. Even the day before they committed the Gonubie murder, we were in Chicken Farm and Mdantsane looking for them. Then again on Tuesday we got reliable information that they were camped in a house in Chicken Farm but when we got there, they were nowhere to be found,” said the officer.
He said a police informant then called around 10pm on Tuesday night to tell them the gang were at the house. “We found the group in a house where they were smoking drugs. Two of them tried to flee by jumping out of a window.”
The officer said one of the men – believed to be the mastermind of the gang – managed to evade arrest.
“We are hot on his heels. We know he is around Mdantsane and we are hoping to arrest him before this weekend ends.”
Another officer said that after they had pounced on the gang, they were led to another house in Chicken Farm, where the guns were discovered.
“At the second house, we found guns everywhere. They were not even hidden. It was like a movie.
“This is where we arrested another man, and the woman who owns the house.
“There is no way she could say she did not know about the guns in her house, because they were everywhere and they were not even hidden.”
Police confiscated five unlicensed rifles, a shotgun and nearly 500 rounds of live ammunition. The four suspects, including the 29-year-old woman, were scheduled to appear in the Mdantsane Magistrate’s Court yesterday.
However, the matter was transferred to the East London Magistrate’s Court due to the positive link to Schultz’s killing and they are now due to appear there on Monday.
Senior prosecutor Harriet Ackermann said yesterday: “We have decided not to place the matter on our roll today. It will be placed in East London because the other charges of murder and robbery are pending there.”
Contacted for comment yesterday, Schultz’s wife Gaye, said the family would reserve comments on the investigation until later.
Gaye described her husband as “a simple, old-fashioned, gentleman. He loved his little business and even though he only had 70% vision, he felt this was something he could do and that is why we are still here after 22 years.”
His daughter, Tracey Ann Warner, said: “We are simple trader folk from Transkei.”
Gaye said she and her husband were Jehovah’s Witnesses, and even after her youngest brother was stabbed to death in Mthatha six years ago, “We bear no grudge.
“He (Elred) had two wonderful children, Brad and Tracey, because of the way they were brought up. He lived to do what was right for his extended family. My poor grandson, who has not had a father for 30 years, says ‘This is my grandfather and my father’.”
Gaye wept as she said Schultz’s dog Mazy “looks for him all over”.
The family had received overwhelming support from customers and the community.
“People are coming from overseas for the funeral,” she said.
Despite being born with a genetic eye condition, Schultz stepped in as a youngster to help his mother run the family trading station at Qamata after his father died.
His service is at 11am at Kingdom Hall, 5 Garden Street, Southernwood.
The Meisies Halt business is due to reopen tomorrow.
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