KEETMANSHOOP – Police in Keetmanshoop have arrested seven J A Nel Secondary School learners in connection with three murders and several robberies at Keetmanshoop in a confession that has shocked the town.
Regional Crime Investigations Coordinator for the //Karas Region, Deputy Commissioner Rudolf Isaak, said the police were tipped off by a member of the public after the murder of 46-year-old Augustineus Joseph, who was reportedly stabbed in his heart with a sharp object on Friday evening.
Police linked the boys who are aged between 14 and 19 years old to all three murders that took place in Keetmanshoop since September.
It has also came to light during the arrest that the boys were suspended from their hostels because of their unruly behaviour, and they had conducted regular robberies over weekends.
“They admitted to the three big murder cases. The thing is the cellphones of the other two people killed were found in their possession. We have learned that they robbed the person who was found dead in front of the governor’s office and took N$100 from him,” Isaak explained. He elaborated that the boys also robbed a woman of her cellphone in the same area where last Friday’s murder was committed.
“They took the lady’s cellphone, N$950 in cash and Addidas shoes,” he said.
The principal of J A Nel Senior Secondary School Elizabeth Beukes could not comment since she did not know the identities of the arrested learners.
The learners will appear in the Keetmanshoop Magistrate’s Court today.
By Jemima Beukes