The sister-in-law of a polygamous Gweru businessman, Peter Dube (35), who brutally shot four people last Friday, two of them fatally, said she escaped death by a whisker after he attempted to shoot his five-year-old son.
Tadiwanashe Nharingo (16) said Dube only turned the gun off his son Nyasha Brendon Dube (5) to shoot at his wife’s best friend Gamuchirai Mudungwe after she wailed and intervened, trying to stop him from shooting the child.
Tadiwanashe said she held the boy tightly on her lap and against her chest on a car seat as Dube pointed the gun at them and later escaped with the child when the killer sets his sights on Gamuchirai. She said:
As he pointed the gun at his son and obviously me because the boy was on my lap, my sister’s friend, Gamuchirai, shouted and screamed at him asking why he wanted to kill his own son and me, and that is when he turned the gun on Gamuchiraai and shot her.
Thereafter, he pursued my sisters, Nyasha and Nyaradzo inside the flat while I ran away with the boy. I then heard two gunshots inside the flat and I knew my sisters had been shot at.
I became the second target, but by God’s grace, I survived together with the boy. Surely the boy was his second target and maybe myself because I was the one holding the boy.
Dube’s wife Nyasha Nharingo and her young sister Nyaradzo are in the Intensive Care Unit (ICU) at Gweru Central Hospital after sustaining life-threatening gunshot wounds.
The suspected boyfriend Shelton Chinhango and Gamuchirai (30) died on the spot after being shot in the head and chest, respectively.
According to The Herald, Nyaradzo was still in critical condition in the ICU where she is set to be operated on to remove the bullet lodged in her skull.
The two injured women’s father, Bothwell Nharingo said Nyasha is out of danger and is now admitted to the female surgical ward.
Nharingo also revealed that after committing the gruesome double-murder, Dube phoned and told him about the incident. He said:
My son-in-law called me in the middle of the night and said ‘come to Bensam Flats and see what has happened.’ He did not explain so I panicked and drove to the scene.
Police were already there. My two daughters were writhing in pain with the bullets in their bodies.
Meanwhile, Acting Midlands provincial police spokesperson Assistant Inspector Ethel Mukwende on Sunday said police were still looking for Dube who dumped his silver Honda Fit car at the scene and disappeared.