Pretoria - The 14-year-old charged with murdering his family with an axe is due to appear in court today to face four counts of murder.
The boy is alleged to have killed four of his family members, including his three-month-old sister and seven-year-old brother on Friday at the Barcelona informal settlement in Ethwatwa in the East Rand. His mother and grandmother died after being rushed to hospital.
The boy’s two other sisters, aged eight and nine, managed to escape unharmed.
“I do not want to speculate on the motive … but the victims were attacked with an axe while they were sleeping,” Gauteng police spokesperson Lungelo Dlamini told SAnews on Monday.
The minor is being kept at a place of safety in Cullinan after the attacks. His sisters, according to Dlamini, alerted the community and police were called in to attend to the scene.
“Even though no weapon was found, we were informed by the sisters that the brother used an axe to kill the family who slept in the same room,” said Dlamini. - SAnews.gov.za
