‘Uneasy calm’ in Westbury following gang leader’s death
A Westbury community leader has spoken of an unusual calm in the area following the death of gang leader Leroy Finch Brown.
Brown, who was the leader of the Varados Group, was shot and killed by unidentified suspects while leaving a gym in Roodepoort, west of Johannesburg, on Tuesday.
His death has sent shockwaves through a community scarred by years of gang-related crime.
In March, Police Minister Bheki Cele launched a new crime and violence prevention strategy in Westbury after community members called for an urgent intervention following several shootings.
Westbury community leader Pastor Jefferson Johnson said Brown’s death has been met with mixed feelings.
“There is a bit of mixed feelings here from the community; some people are very happy that he is dead, and others are very hurt. At the end of the day, he is also a mother’s child, and he comes from a family.
“However, at the same time, there has been so much fear among the people in the community. We all are at a level of anxiety. We don’t know what can happen at this current moment. For now, it’s fairly quiet.”
Johnson says there is fear of retaliatory attacks by members of Brown’s gang.
“Based on messages that were sent that have gone viral, there’s threats going out that this one has to die and that one has to die. So, there’s an ongoing thing where people are threatening to come back and retaliate.
“There are a few people that are innocently implicated in the case, saying that they shot the guy. The one guy is dead, so I don’t know where they come from with the fact that this guy could have been involved. The one other guy, he was at work when the shooting happened, and the other person is in Durban. So, we are just hoping that the police can just do their work properly to be able to see properly who was the people that killed the guy”.
Johnson said if the community keeps protecting the criminals, nothing will change.
“As a parent, you need to make sure that your child is safe, meaning if you know for a fact that your son has firearms, expose him. If you know that your son killed somebody, expose the boy. Take him to prison and let him live the life that he has chosen because if we just leave them, we are going to have a much more cursed generation to come if we can’t fix things now.
“I hope the death of Leroy brings peace to our community, not in a bad way from my side but in a sense that our people have to see things for what they are right now. We can’t live like this. We can’t be hateful towards each other.
No arrests have yet been made in relation to Brown’s murder.
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