By Staff Reporter
news@alexreporter.co.za
A man has been killed and two students injured after they were shot allegedly by police during a student protest in Braamfontein.
Witnesses told journalits that Wits University students were protesting at about 10.40am when police started following them along De Beer Street.
“We were sitting outside waiting for a bus that was to take us to a workshop in Brixton.
“Wits students came and passed us going up the road. When they reached the corner [of Stiemens and De Beer] they saw that the police were coming.
“They then started running down the road. Police then came chasing the students and they started firing rubber bullets.
“The man who was killed had just came from the clinic. He was walking on the road.
“They shot him first in the arm. He approached them and asked why are you shooting me. They then fired more shots at close range and he fell down. They also fired shots at us and we ran into the building. Two of my schoolmates were shot,” said Thabiso Mfolo.
Mfolo said the security guard at the Johannesburg Institute of Engineering and Technology, where he is studying, also came to inform the police that they were not part of the protest.
“When the shooting stopped. I came out and saw the guy lying down, he was still alive.
“The ambulance came late and he was dead. I am really traumatised. I do not know why the police shot at us because we were not part of the protest,” he said.
Wits students have been protesting over registration of owing students since yesterday. Police have now closed De Beer street and hundreds of students have gathered at the scene.
One of the security guards who witnessed the incident said the two students that were injured were taken in by the clinic where the deceased had just received treatment before being killed.
