Mother's anguish after her son is shot dead in Morgan Village
Uzair Bedeker, a promising young soccer player, tragically shot dead in Morgan Village.
Image: Supplied
A heartbroken Mitchells Plain mom is battling to come to terms with the loss of her only son who was gunned down just metres from his home in Morgan Village on Friday night.
Uzair Bedeker, 17, was tragically shot and killed shortly after leaving his house in Morgan Village last Friday on his way to a friend.
His mother, Shahiema, said that his passing has left her broken.
She explained: “I last heard my son was busy making himself something to eat, and then he left the house. He told my husband he was going to a friend while I was busy upstairs.
“Then someone came to our door saying, ‘they just shot Uzair’. He was shot around the corner.
“The neighbours down the road were at the scene, and they were busy putting him in a taxi. They told me to get in so that we could get him to a hospital.
“When we got to Lentegeur District Hospital, they put him on a stretcher, and I saw that this child was not looking right, and he was just staring up. I thought to myself, ‘is this child dead or what?’
“So I felt him, but he felt normal, and as he was looking up, I saw something in his eyes, and I told myself, ‘I don’t think my child is going to make it’, but I still had hope as a mother.
“I thought he was going to pull through because he was still warm.”
As Uzair was assessed in the emergency room, Shahiema called her husband to let him know that she was at the hospital.
When she tried to return to her son, she said that a nurse told her to wait in the family room for a doctor. And at that moment, she knew that her son had passed away.
Tributes have been pouring in for the youngster, as he was also a member of the Juventus AFC soccer club in New Lentegeur.
District Six FC Club also expressed their sadness at his passing, saying that he scored the last-minute equaliser against them in the Mitchells Plain Cup earlier this year and took the tie to penalties, where Uzair’s team would go on to beat them.
Shahiema said that her son was always willing to lend a hand and believes the deadly bullet was “not meant for him”.
She said: “I’m going to miss everything about him, where he could help, he would help. He would do anything. He was always there whenever I needed him.
“For the type of person he was, you wouldn’t expect something like this; that shooting was not meant for him.”
Cops said that Lentegeur detectives are investigating a case of murder. Police spokesperson Constable Ndakhe Gwala: “No arrest has been effected at this stage, investigation is ongoing.”