Young mom shot dead while pushing baby in pram

By Genevieve Serra | IOL |

Heartless gangsters shot and killed this young mother while she walked with her six-month-old son in a pram, in the street where she lives.

Mishkah Hendricks, 21, also known as Michaela, had been walking with her baby and her two siblings aged 13 and 16, when gunmen opened fire in Rio Grande Street, Manenberg, just after 8am on Saturday.

Mishkah, who worked at a clothing factory, was on her way to the bank in Cape Town when her life was brutally snuffed out.

Family members say Mishkah flung the pram with her son in it out of harm’s way when the gunshots rang out.

The young mom was struck in the spine and suffered a wound to her lungs.

She was rushed to hospital where she later died.

Mishkah was laid to rest hours after she died, according to Muslim rites.

Her distraught aunt, Charlotte Hendricks, 55, describes in horror what happened: “I was washing myself when I heard the gunshots going off.”

“When I heard the people screaming, I knew someone had been shot.”

Mishkah’s friend, 25, who asked not to be identified, says as the young mother fought for her life, she repeatedly asked for her baby.

“She pushed the pram out of the way as they shot and it fell to the ground,” the friend says.

“She called for me to take the baby from her sister and called me again to see him for a last time as she lay there; she wanted him in her arms.”

Charlotte says doctors and paramedics fought to save Mishkah’s life: “They said the bullet went through her spine, artery and up to the lungs.”

The aunt says Mishkah was a loving mother who was loved by everyone in the community.

“She didn’t deserve such a death. She was someone who was the same every day.”

“Her baby, it’s like he can feels something is wrong, he has been nagging since yesterday,” she says.

The road where the shooting happened, residents say, is a battleground for rival gangs.

Police spokesperson, Lieutenant-Colonel André Traut, confirms the shootings: “Yesterday morning at around 8am, a 21-year-old female was shot and wounded in Rio Grande Street, Manenberg.”

“She was admitted to hospital where she succumbed.”

“Her murder is being investigated by police.”